wintergreen, va
January 21, 2010 | Filed Under family photos, friends, travel | 1 Comment
our family took a trip this past weekend with a group of other young families to one of our favorite spots – wintergreen, a ski resort located in the virginia mountains about three hours’ drive from the DC area. i’ve been there twice before – once with my husband, before we had musa, and once last summer, to shoot this wedding. we had a wonderful time – most of all, watching our children enjoy themselves, but also enjoying some winter sports, good company, good food and lasting memories. naturally i took my camera along… though here i am sharing just a few images of my own family (like musa on the bungee-trampoline!), and mostly some of the breathtaking scenery at wintergreen – utterly magical in the snow and fog, and exhilarating in the winter sunlight under a blue sky.
niagara/finger lakes trip
November 8, 2009 | Filed Under family photos, nature, travel | 5 Comments
here is a selection from the almost 700 images we shot on our four-night trip to niagara falls, toronto and the finger lakes… yeah, that’s why it’s taken me so long to get these up! 
so, here’s what we did! we drove up through upstate new york on sunday, oct. 18; just hitting peak foliage color, on the way, and it was a gorgeous drive! the first night in niagara falls was very cold, but the weather warmed up for the next few days. monday we started off at the bird & reptile kingdom, for the kid, but then we “did” the falls – walking along the cliff, taking the maid of the mist, going “behind the falls,” etc., underneath such a lovely blue sky with sunlit white clouds… the next day we drove into toronto, saw the city and the CN tower, tried a few different restaurants (specifically, my husband had three different shawarmas for dinner!) then came back to niagara falls; that night we also got some shots along the cliff with the colored floodlights glowing through the mist. the next day we drove downstream to see a little more of what the falls region had to offer – niagara-on-the-lake, etc – then crossed back over the border and drove down to ithaca for the night.
the following day, we spent the morning and early afternoon sightseeing along cayuga lake and seneca lake, with all their wooded banks aflame in autumn colors and the local vineyards laden with grapes… this was our only family vacation this year, and i’m glad to say even the little one quite enjoyed himself, for the most part! we stayed at the skyline inn and we were quite happy with the experience there. but more than anything, it was just a much-needed break, to have the time to ourselves, witness something as awe-inspiring as the falls, and – for me – to take pictures for myself…
just in case you’re wondering, this one’s from the bird kingdom’s reptile room…
and this is an actual “java house” with each wall carved painstakingly from a single piece of wood… they have this kind of randomly located in the bird kingdom…
my son, on the maid of the mist…
“behind” the horseshoe falls
here we were by the water in toronto…
and this is one of the views from the CN tower
back in niagara falls, at night…
this is the “whirlpool” in the niagara river, downstream from the falls
ithaca falls, by cornell university…
a park we stopped by near taughannock falls
and, taughannock falls! they said this is three stories higher than niagara falls…
a glimpse from my canada trip
November 4, 2009 | Filed Under family photos, nature, travel | 4 Comments
i already facebooked this image so i assume most people have seen it but thought i would share it here as well: my favorite shot from the canada trip (my husband, son and i visited niagara falls and toronto from october 18-22, stopping a night in upstate NY on the way home). here, my husband had dropped me off along the cliffside to take nighttime shots of the colored lights on the falls; after i had taken more than enough, just when i was starting to wonder if he had left me there and gone back to the hotel he popped up behind me with our son on his shoulders, to scare me! on our walk back upstream to the car, i got this shot of them with the floodlit falls behind them…
another old travel pics post
February 26, 2009 | Filed Under family photos, travel | Leave a Comment
i’m in NC right now, visiting my parents! actually i am here to second shoot a wedding on saturday evening… but came down early to give my parents some more time with my son.
i’m VERY excited about this second shooting opportunity, but i will share all that in my next post! for now, i thought i would keep the momentum up with another post sharing some images from our last trip to england, back in april 2008. these are, of course, taken with the rebel xt and my old sigma 28-70 lens, and occasionally the 70-200 as well. but anyway. my husband and i have made three trips to the UK in the five-plus years of our marriage; this was musa’s first trip. i’m a tiny bit anglophilic and obsessively celtophilic (basically england is cool because it’s so close to scotland), but we also have family and friends who take lavish care of us when we go – it’s always, always a wonderful time. without further ado, my favorite shots from the trip…
flying into europe – over the west coast of ireland! even from this high up, it’s one of the most beautiful countries i’ve ever seen. a home for my heart.
an asian sunday market in – i want to say – oh, i can’t say, i can’t remember. one of the many mid-england cities filled with desis – indians and pakistanis, etc., etc. the guy in the foreground looking a little conscious is my husband’s cousin’s husband trying not to be in the picture…
at castle hill… a local landmark of sorts in huddersfield.
sunset viewed from castle hill:
at my husband’s cousin’s house, my son eating crisps – not chips – with a distant relation of similar size
said cousin’s eldest daughter got married in pakistan this past summer. but i persuaded her to let me take some shots of her in her dress, which she already had with her. she did her own makeup – very talented young woman!
they took us for a bit of sightseeing… we ended up here, at skipton castle (i had to google for a while before i found the name that sparked my memory!), and in castles i always take too many window shots…
more…
musa in a castle window, for a little variety? oh, what i wouldn’t give to do a bridal shoot in a place like this…
alright, so after a few days in the midlands, we traveled to bristol to stay a few days with my own cousin, and they took us on a trip into wales – to oakwood theme park, in pembrokeshire. here on the bus is musa with relatives he was meeting for the first time:
just some trees i liked:
my cousin’s older daughter and my son:
playing with my 70-200 – not always as sharp as i like, but it did the trick here!
how they still keep warm in england! (we traveled back to huddersfield for the final days of our trip)
and finally, something from the flight home: somewhere over very far northern north america, but i couldn’t tell you where for the life of me…
