A summer thunderstorm brings the distinctive smell of rain on hot pavement, the whipping cooler wind, rolling thunder, and ultimately a beautiful lightning show.  Until recently I had never attempted to photograph lightning.  Like many folks, I have seen photographs showing the awesome power of lightning, and after years of seeing these photos I decided to finally try my hand at photographing lightning.

Post production of photos is, and has been, a key part of a photographers work.  In the past photographers often spent hours in the dark room developing film, and they often employed techniques that would effect the final image.  Today the same holds true, except most photographers use digital post processing software.

Photoshop is a powerful tool and can be used to help create amazing images; however, it can also be overused and caused photos to look unrealistic.  Some photographers will take post production of photos to the extreme removing every blemish, recoloring hair, smoothing facial wrinkles, replacing missing, and so much more; it's actually a very unfortunate.  These things make us who we are, and while we may not like the wrinkles or graying hair they are part of us.

I think most kids regardless of age find joy in playing in the mud and getting dirty.  Lately, one of my favorite things to do is watch my son play in his "mud pit" in our back yard.  He digs, he creates, imagining everything from road construction to digging for dinosaur bones, and the joy he has doing it reminds me of the simple pleasures of my childhood doing similar things.

This series of photos "Mud Play is Fun Play" is all from one day.  One day where he played for hours in his mud pit; one day where his silliness and creativity was awe inspiring.  Not only did I enjoy creating these photos, but I just simply enjoyed watching him be completely silly and enjoy getting as dirty as possible.

Making memories as a family is important, not only for now but for the future as well.  Memorable moments come from daily life, but also from the adventures you take and what could be more memorable than a cross country trip with the family?

I distinctly remember my cross country trip as a kid.  My best friend invited me to spend a couple weeks with him and his family as they drove from Pittsburgh, PA to San Diego, CA.  I remember the amazing sights, both the fun and monotonous moments of riding in the car, and the cool folks we met along the way; we made some awesome memories!

Fast forward to January 2018, and my family was planning a trip across the country as we moved from San Diego, CA to Virginia Beach, VA.  My wife and I had made the reverse trip in 2012, but now we were bringing our 4 year old son, and our dog and cat, so we had to do a little bit more planning.  As I write this blog post, I'm happy that we did because now I get to share all the awesome stuff we saw and the memories we made.

All the photos included here were created by me with either my iPhone 6, Nikon point and shoot camera, and my Canon 5D Mk III and 7D.

I've traveled the world and seen sunsets in various Europe, Asia, and Middle Eastern countries; and I've seen sunsets from the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans, as well as the Mediterranean, Red, Norwegian, Greenland, Java, and South China Seas.  I've seen a lot of beautiful and amazing sunsets, but out of all these sunsets, in all of these different places, there are only maybe 5 or 6 that I have considered to be amazingly epic and absolutely stunning.

I've said it before, but out of all the places I've been, Southern California has some of the best sunsets.

A few Saturday's ago, my family and I headed out to take our annual photo for our Christmas card.  Each year, we try to do something a little different, and this year we decided to head down to the rocks on the beach just north of Scripps Pier.

We knew the sunset would be pretty good with the clouds hanging out in the sky, and with low tide and sunset coinciding nicely with each other, we figured there wasn't a better time to get the photo we wanted.