As pressed for time as I tend to be on a day to day basis, I can’t not do a photography blog about our recent trip to Italy. By all means, check out the full photo albums, but here I just wanted to share the “wow” photos that I thought were the most interesting or beautiful.

We were so upset that we got rained out going to our hometown Andrews Air Show this year, that we drove all the way to Dover, DE for the Thunder Over Dover air show, and had a great time. We saw a lot of planes that we hadn’t seen nor even heard of before, and got to see some military demonstrations that we hadn’t ever seen either. Overall the Dover AFB Show was awesome. We look forward to going again next year!

When it comes to crowded summer beaches with zillions of people, there’s nothing better than fast prime lenses to help keep your photos focused on your subjects, and not on other beachgoers! Beach photography with my Canon EOS RP and Canon 35mm f/1.4L and 135mm f/2L lenses.

We went to Shenandoah National Park over Memorial Day weekend this year. Unlike in the past where we’d enter at Thornton Gap and just stick around the central district, this time we entered at the north end of the park in Front Royal, and made our way almost all the way down to the south end of the park at Mile 80. Our kids are all a bit older now at 10 and 12, so they’re capable of a lot more than they were even a few years ago, and our dog has proven to be quite the hiker as well, so our trip to SNP was a lot of new adventures for us in an old place.

William and I made our way all the way down to Virginia International Raceway (VIR) in Alton, VA, a 4 hour drive from the DC area, for HyperFest 2019 and a boys only weekend. It was a blast to see all sorts of cool cars blasting around, and getting to camp out at the track.

A photo tour of our trip to Turks and Caicos in the British West indies with my new full-frame Canon EOS RP camera. Enjoy!

Last year we were too exhausted from moving to enjoy any fireworks, but this year we had a great time! The city fireworks where we live our right in the park in our neighborhood, so we can just walk about a mile for a really nice show.

It only took a few months due to all of the rain, but we finally managed to have our annual summer kickoff color party on July 4th, 2018!

Well, it was a little past peak, but the annual DC Cherry Blossom Festival was actually today, and the weather was drop dead gorgeous also, so we dragged our butts out of bed at 6:30am and were on the road by 7:00am sharp to get down into town to take it all in!

Here in the Washington, D.C. area, we only get an air show every other year at Andrews Air Force Base (Joint Base Andrews) due to DoD budget cuts, which makes the biennial Andrews Air Show a must-see event. This year I went with just my son, and it was an amazing day! 

Do you own your photography, or does your photography own you? A classic age old question, that's often a bit of a balancing act that requires a bit of experimentation!

I've wanted a Fuji X100 since the line first came out in 2010, but had just blown my wad on a new at the time full-frame Canon 5D Mark II camera, and was acquiring lenses for the Canon system after switching from Nikon. The first X100 was intriguing, but seemed a bit rough around the edges. Fuji made some nice improvements to the camera with the X100S successor a few years later, and I still wanted one. Then they made yet more improvements with the third generation X100T, which had finally become a very well-rounded camera, but still didn't get one. Now they've just released the fourth generation X100F with yet more improvements, and I finally bit the bullet and got one. 

We finally did something that we hadn't been able to do for the past six years - we went on a trip to New York City, for fun! 

It's become a bit of a tradition to meet my folks at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA for a Mother's Day get together. There's a bunch of good places to have a nice brunch around there, and the gardens are beautiful, and great for family photos.

Spring Break 2017 has come and gone, and we had a fantastic time in Barcelona! If it were up to me, I'd have parachuted into a cute little island in the Caribbean somewhere and just disconnected for a week. We've been through a lot in the past year. A week on a little island somewhere with my feet in the water and my ass in the sand sounded ideal, but I'm glad I was out-voted. We'd been longing to come back to the Continent for ages, and the Euro trading at about parity with the Dollar now made it a great time. Spain was amazing, and Barcelona is an incredible city. We can't wait to go back to Europe again!

My daughter turned 10!!! She's such a sweetie, and a panda mommy too! The weather was super nice out, so we went outside and did a little photoshoot of her.

I'm sooo behind on posting photo albums on here. There's lots of fun stuff I've wanted to share from last year, but just no time. We did get down into D.C. today to enjoy the famous Cherry Blossoms of the Tidal Basin.

I got this really cool moon photo on March 9th with my Canon 7D Mark II and Canon 100-400mm L II lens.

The first real snow of the year, I always love to get photos of our kids, Katie and William, running through the snow as it comes down. Katie didn't want to play, so leave it to William to get all of the glory. Photos taken with my Canon 5D Mark II and 135mm f/2L prime lens, shot at full aperture. Enjoy! :)

Our Year in Photos for 2016

Four years ago this week, my wife and I enjoyed a blissful 5 days and 4 nights in St Lucia at the famous Ladera Resort, which has been recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. We needed this so badly. We had been through complete hell. We loved and cherished every second of this trip. Something about being in paradise and on island time helping you to get back in touch with the one you love, and getting your love and romance burning at full force again after so much hardship.

All of my secrets are here. :)

We got a record 3-plus FEET of snow here in the Washington, D.C. area from January 22-24th, 2016. So of course I was out with my cameras!!

Our year in photos.

Old Rag Mountain is one of the most popular hikes in the entire mid-Atlantic region, and also one of the most strenuous and spectacular. It peaks at 3291 feet, has a total elevation gain of 2500 feet from parking lot to peak, and includes nearly a mile of rock scrambling to get to the top. It's an extremely challenging hike, but worth it for all of the spectacular views.

My old buddy Pete, whom I've known for 20 years, finally got hitched last year! I was super excited for both him and his new wife, Marnie, but just wasn't able to make the ceremony. As promised though, and a little bit later than planned, I was happy to finally deliver my wedding gift to them of a professional engagement style photo shoot!

A huge highlight of our summer was finally getting to go to the Joint Base Andrews Air Show on September 19th, 2015. I had been to the Andrews Air Show back in 2012, and thought it was fantastic. I couldn't wait to go the following year with the whole family, except 2012 was the year they went to every other year for this particular air show due to budget cuts. By the time 2014 finally rolled around, the sequester killed our DC area air show once again, and it took until 2015 to finally get another air show, and only for a single day. Thankfully the weather was perfect, and it was a picture perfect clear day. We went all-in and sprung for Flight Line Club passes for all of us so that we could enjoy the air show in style. Luxury trip. :-)