I’ve been in Maryland for about a week now and its been so great to be with my family and see old friends. I hope everyone is having an amazing and joyous holiday season with loved ones.

Here’s my dad playing sax in his basement. He plays in an 8 piece band, and they sound awesome!

This is looking outside the window from my room here.

My friend Brad and I went for a hike in the local state park a couple days ago. For me being a nature lover, it was soooo nice to get out of the hussle and bussle and spend a nice day with a great friend in the park.

Brad is one of my best friends and he really wants to move out west. As we were walking in the park he would pick up all the trash he found (and there sure was alot more trash than I ever see in my local parks out west). What a great guy!

When I lived in MD we lived really close to a historic district and I used to spend a lot of time down there. It was really nice to go back and walk around Old Ellicott City.

Yesterday I spent Christmas with my family and we had a lovely day. I’ll post up some more pictures soon!

Today was amazing!! A bunch of photographers from the MD/DC/Virginia area got together to hang out, shoot pictures, and just have a blast wandering around Washington DC. We got to see a really cool exhibit at The Corcoran Gallery of Art that featured an exhibit by Ansel Adams and Annie Leibovitz, and then just walked around, got some lunch, and enjoyed each other’s company. Jessica Del Vecchio and Sarah Hodzic helped plan all the fun. We had a great time and I made some great new friends today. Thanks so much Jess and Sarah!

Kate Triano came up from Virginia, close to DC.

Joana Gribko was from the area.

Kathy Freundel came down from Westminster, MD which is actually where my dad lived for 12 years.

Jill Myers came down from Baltimore.

Here’s Sarah Hodzic of Blink Photography. She lives right outside DC.

Kathy brought her lovely daughter Kristiana, who was also shooting with us. Kathy told me she has 8 kids which blew me away. She looks fabulous!!

And its always great to see the fabulous Jessica Del Vecchio, who’s always so helpful to so many people.

It was great to meet you all and see you again Jess and Sarah. Thanks for the awesome day!!

So I just finished a long standing idea I’ve had for a long time; to completely make over my home office. So with the incredible help of my friend Milo, we put in a laminate floor, and I painted new colors, and I got a new desk! I LOVE my desk! It is motorized and adjusts in height. It’s amazing!! I can work standing up or sitting. My girlfriend Erin is 5′3″ and it went low enough to be perfect for her, and it works perfectly for me to stand up at at 6″2″. I’ve always dreamed of having a desk I could stand and sit at, but this one exceeded my expectations and maintains a simple elegance that I love.

I hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season with friends and family. I just flew back to Maryland yesterday to be with my family and its so good to see them. Happy Holidays!

Erin was stoked the desk could lower and be the perfect height for her to.

I love being able to stand or sit to work. It burns 4 times as many calories to work standing than to work sitting, so even when I’m too busy to get out and exercise as much as I’d like, I can keep in decent shape.  I find that I end up standing about 80% of the time, which is also great for the back.  I also just got a trampoline in the back yard which is PERFECT for fun little “get your heart rate up” breaks from work. I’ll have to get some pictures together from the trampoline when I get back to California just after the new year. It’s sooooooo fun!!!

It was quite a project to rip out the old gnarly carpet. I think anyone who has ever seen what’s under a carpet will never have one again.

I wouldn’t have been able to do this project without the huge amount of help of my friend Milo. Thanks so much Milo!!

Claire and Mike had a beautiful intimate wedding at the Wawona Hotel over Thanksgiving weekend. We met in Yosemite Valley the day before for some beautiful photos you can see here. Their families flew in from different parts of the country for their destination wedding, and everyone had a great time and was awed by Yosemite’s beauty. Claire and Mike met in Yosemite when they worked there a few years ago. What a special place to meet. You guys are amazing and I wish you many blessings as journey through life together.

My friend Ryan and I took advantage of an unusually warm december day the other day and went for a hike in the High Sierra. We hiked up to about 11,500 feet and had an incredible day. It was so quiet and peaceful, the calm before the storm. The next day a storm brought in over a foot of fresh snow, the first big snow storm of the winter. It was so cool to be able to slip one last day into the high country before it gets covered in snow for the season.  We got to hear the amazing rumble of lake ice slowly melting and shifting and cracking all day. It was really special. We didn’t even see one animal the whole day until a hawk graced us with its presence. The earth felt ready for its winter blanket.

Shawn

Yesterday morning I was laying in bed awake early, and I noticed outside that there was some really cool cloud formations that would probably look awesome with the sun’s first light. So I jumped right out of bed and into the car and headed up into Pine Creek canyon, a rugged mountain canyon just north of Bishop. I’ve always wanted to photograph at sunrise up there after a fresh winter storm so it was really exciting!

The mountains here are so rugged. These next couple shots look like they’re from the Himalaya or something.