The past few days have involved a lot of face time with my computer.  But I definitely can't complain.  The view from my window makes me feel like I'm living in a treehouse.

On a nice day you can see clear to the mountains.

We are also the proud new owners of an orange tree.  Through quite a bit of effort by Tony and our friend Dennis (who didn't know he was conscripted for labor until he arrived at our apartment that day), it now sits in our balcony with little oranges growing as I write.  I am hopeful, despite having a rather notoriously black thumb, that this plant won't go the way of our other plants.  It helps that this tree is a fair size, so I'm hoping it'll be a little tougher, and I'm also hoping that the golden California sunshine will do the rest.

And every so often I venture outside to work.  There is nothing like the lure of a jukebox, a portabello mushroom burger and a milkshake to get me outdoors.  Our neighborhood is full of quirky shops and eateries. 

Here is a teaser from a wedding I shot this past weekend.  

As a wedding photographer you try to be incognito, or at least as close as we can dressed all in black with a lot of equipment dangling off our necks.  It's the best way to get the candid shots that tell the story of the wedding day.  This shot was taken during the bride's procession.  I love the look of anticipation.  It was a wonderful wedding for a very special couple and I'm very excited to share those photos with you soon.  :)

And as nice as it is to be able to run around and shoot freely, it is also an amazing feeling to be greeted by the family of the bridal couple on a first name basis and to be given a hug like a friend by the couple at the end of their wedding day.  It is a constant reminder of why I love what I do, and how blessed I am to work with such amazing people and listen to their stories.

The Los Angeles Arboretum is a lovely idyllic place that can still boast of a few little niches that are left to run a little (pleasantly) wild.

An afternoon visit with Ellen felt a bit like a slice of of Planet Earth (well, a significantly cheaper, non-HD version with no NASA technology and BBC orchestra).  We saw a heron's distended neck swell to double its size as it attempted to gulp down a fish the size of his head and squirrels dexterously peel nuts from a tree. 

It was also a little electrifying to watch peacocks stroll casually around the grounds.  And something was obviously in the air as I watched a peacock chase out an offending male, then perform his little courting dance to attract the attention of a less-than-enthused female.

It's a little mind-boggling to think that by this year all my college roommates will be married.  When I showed up at Gloria's house, amidst all the hustle and bustle of wedding day preparations, all these funny memories came flooding back of the good times in our apartment.

Experiencing weddings as a guest is very different from experiencing it as a photographer.  For one thing, you don't get the best view on the house.  But I was able to hear the oos and ahhs when flower girl KariAnne made her way down the aisle in a radio flyer, and there wasn't a dry eye in the house when Gloria and Jason spoke words of thanks and love to their parents during the ceremony.

I'm sure that Jason and Gloria are currently enjoying a gorgeous Hawaiian sunset right now, and getting some well-deserved rest on their honeymoon.  That or they are decked out in matching Lakers jerseys watching the game together.  There's nothing like unity in marriage. =)  Regardless, congratulations!!

When I started college my diet was quite abysmal, consisting of fast food and junk food (Vegetable? What vegetable?).  However, three years of apartment living with my friend Krissy slowly but surely cured me of that.  After three years and a few culinary mishaps, I learned to love vegetables (some a lot more than others).  So I think she'd be a little proud of my activity this past weekend (though I do confess, I do sneak in the occasional ultimate cheese burger now and then).

This past Saturday I spent a fun, sunny afternoon in the fields with the family for the Tanaka farms cookout tour.   We were carted around by a tractor through their farm.  Beyond handy information about their crops and farming practices (Tanaka farms is pesticide free!), we also learned a lot of practical things... like how hard it is to pull up a carrot, which is wedged into the dirt with nothing but wispy, little greens sticking out.

At their encouragement, we pulled up vegetables, brushed off a little dirt (in the case of the Maui sweet onions, a lot of dirt), and ate them right then and there (below is a shot of my bok choy after I took a bite).   We even ate the flowers off of the Chinese broccoli.  Quite tasty.

And of course, no farm visit is ever complete without a meal, so we washed our little harvest, put them on the grill to cook, and ate the fruits (or rather veggies) of our labor.  My favorite new vegetable is the kohlrabi, which is basically a cabbage with the texture of a broccoli stem.  We actually ended up buying one to go (though of course I picked the biggest one I could find, only to struggle with chopping and peeling it later).

The pièce de résistance was their strawberries, which we picked after lunch.  It's kind of amazing to see the strawberries in their various stages (flower, green strawberry, and then red strawberry).

I love the fact that there are places like Tanaka farms, which educate as much as they  enrich the lives of people like myself, who know of little beyond the market.  And there truly is no better way to lure people out than with the promise of food. :)