Here is our tentative schedule:

1. Southern CA, Orange/LA county: Sunday April 24th – to – Sat. April 30th.
2. Fresno: Sunday May 1st – to – Tue May 3rd.
3. Bay area / Sacramento: Wed. May 4th – to – Sun. May 8th.

Please note: Dates and locations are subject to change. (Unless something crazy happens, this should be our schedule for the most part ;p)

Since every post should have a photo, here’s one from our last visit down there! Yays. So excited to see CA again… jump for joy! Click through the rest of this post to see all the details, and a special group offer!

If you are interested, contact us for rates. We’re expecting weekend dates to book up fast, so if you want to secure your date, book early! Dates will be reserved on a first come first serve basis. Dates can only be secured with booking deposits ($50) so lock in your date as soon as possible!

Also, there are perks for referring friends and family. For every booked referral we get from you, you receive $25 in print credit. If you can get three other booked sessions from your same city, you get a FREE 2hour session (contact us for specific details).

Here are snapshots from our snow-venture. They were all taken under natural light. Hope you enjoy them.

There’s nothing quite like soft powdery snow. Not only can you smash each other w/o harm… they break apart beautifully for photos. The photos below were at a small pull-out alongside the highway. Which is another resolution: Stop driving, get out and take photos.. instead of driving through only to say: “THAT spot back there would’ve been beautiful.”

Still unsatisfied with the locations we’d driven by, we kept driving and searching until… we had to pee… then we kept driving still. ;p And finally found a nice secluded pull-out with tall trees and fresh fallen snow.

With a little bit more walking we found a nice little pedestrian bridge! Another perfect spot to set up the tripod, yays!

Not sure what she was doing here, but here’s my take: She’s making like Wonder Woman… sitting on her invisible plane ready for take-off.

And with our toes freezing up.. it was a wrap. We packed lite… just a small bag of ornaments and our tripod.

You can see how soft the freshly fallen snow was in the photo below. Every little branch, large or small was blanketed with a soft layer of white. The details were amazing: how it clings onto the mossy trees and branches was just beautiful.

Oh yes… the main reason we even made the trek out to the cold. Here are the eventual photos we decided to use for our Christmas cards that were sent out to family, friends and clients. Thanks again for your love and support everyone.

It was my first time at Universal Studios and I loved the Studio tour the most! I’m still in awe at how they pull everything off and manage to make it look completely real and authentic. We saw sets from all sorts of movies and tv shows. My favorite was Whoville even though it looked a little forlorn without any Who residents. We went on a grand total of 4 rides and spent the rest of the time going around snapping photos of one another (took the lightweight combo: Nikon D90 w/ Nikon 35mm/f2.0 lens)… good times as always! =d

Click on the thumbnails to view more pics!

Click through for more Napa Valley snapshots.

More snapshots below. Next stop? Avenue of the Giants, Humboldt Redwoods State Park!

Click through for more photos.

Here are more snapshots of all the sight seeing we did. Next stop? Napa Valley!

Click through for more photos… and our unexpected letdown.

What was the letdown? We were all excited to see the Sky walk… drove 400+ miles to the Grand Canyon South Rim only to find that the new Sky Walk was 250 miles west at an Indian reservation somewhere. What a bummer huh? I guess we could have researched it better. Oh well, we still made the best of it. The Grand Canyon is such a breathtaking place, how could you not enjoy the incredible view. It is truly a natural wonder of the world. Below are some of our snapshots, hope you guys enjoy them.

Of the two gardens, I definitely enjoyed the Japanese garden more. We weren’t able to get a tour guide for the Japanese Garden, but wow, the place spoke for itself. The garden was blanketed in rich vibrant red and yellow autumn colors; it made for the perfect backdrop for us picture whores =) If you are ever in the Portland area, make sure you set aside time to enjoy both of these beautiful gardens.

Here are photos of both gardens below, I hope you enjoy them.

Photography travel tip: If you find yourself under possible rainy conditions, grab the shower cap from your hotel room. It makes for the perfect camera rain cover.

“The word “neige” (pronounced “NAY-guh”), meaning “that”, used in colloquial speech as a kind of hesitation noise, equivalent to the English “uh” or “y’know”. -source

All in all, our Shanghai experience was definitely an enjoyable one. We were always on the go with gift shopping, sightseeing, bar hopping, food tasting, and last but not least, the glorious hour long foot massages which felt so good after a long day of exploring the city. So with that, lots more pics to share! =)

Today, we explored the National Palace Museum of Taiwan and was able to view at a lot of beautiful ancient relics from old bronze age daggers to caligraphy artwork to modern 1900 Ching dynasty craftwork (they wouldnt allow our cameras in.. bummer).

After the museum, we took the subway to the local fisherman’s wharf @ Dansui. It was lively, a lot of local vendors, streetside performers and again a lot of 7-elevens lol. This place reminded me of 3rd street Promenade in Santa Monica… just w/o the octopus and wild boar vendors.

Here are some pics… Our first leg in Taiwan is over, but we’ll be back for a few days after we return from Shangai / Beijing.. we’re flying out to the mainland China today. Shanghai Kiss here we come!