Flashback to the Good 'Ol Days

So here it is January and ever since January of 2004 this month has always brought about a pang of sadness to my heart. The reason being that the first four months of 2004 were quite possibly some of the best of my life. It was then that I was able to pioneer my college’s brand new study abroad program, the Pacific Rim Study Abroad.

Man was I hyped and excited for a four month journey across three continents, five countries and more cultural boundaries than I ever could have imagined. Not to mention the lifelong friendships that I would forge and the “Sweet As” adventures we would partake in! (Sweet As is a common Kiwi saying for something that is really cool) (Kiwi is another word for a New Zealander).

We started our trip with a couple days in Beijing China, then spent four weeks on the north island of New Zealand, then two weeks in Sydney Australia, and the outback at a hostel that has no roads to it (gotta go by boat) then back the China for six weeks, studying and traveling all around including Xi’An to see the Terra Cotta Army, and then to Japan for a day, and to top it all off we had a two week stopover on the island of Oahu on the way home.

Now you are starting to grasp the reasons why I say they could be the best four months of my life.

Anyways, a new group is partaking of this adventure right now, and when the photos pop up of their musings and journeys, it always brings me back to the same sullen path of wonderful memories.

So I decided to post a few photos of some of those great memories. If you don’t like them, sorry, this post is more for the writer than the reader… 

Here is a shot of me on the Great Wall

This was taken on Piha Beach (a black sand beach) about 45 minutes outside of Auckland, New Zealand.

A couple of cool Beijing Street Cops…

The infamous live scorpion that I ate…video below the picture…

For the video click HERE

The Opera House…

And finally, some of the crew that went surfing with Uncle Robbie at Barber Point on Oahu…

And last but not least, this time of year it is nice to look at a picture that warms you up, so here is a shot of Josh Boyer and I watching a sunset in Nanakuli on the West shore of Oahu.

Well memories fade, but photos always help…I’m ready to go again…

The 85L Magnificorificness

I will let these pictures tell the story behind the word that I had to make up to describe this lens.

One of my favorites from the whole trip!

Also, here is a great one with a wide angle shot at 2.8 aperture. I love the blur with a wide angle it is just cool!

This weekend I hope to post some stuff from my camping at 13,000 ft adventure, maybe even a HD movie Bear Grylls style!!!

El Cerro de las Mitras

So back in December, I was able to travel down to Monterrey for the holidays with my wife’s family. We had a great time and I did blog quite a bit in early January about it if you are niterested in going back and checking out some of the pictures.

Anyways, my brothers in law, Mau and Tonio took me backpacking and camping up in the mountains for my Christmas present. The first thing I learned is that I was really out of shape! Next was that it was awesome!

Here are some pictures from the trip and I have some video also, which I will post when I get around to editing it which can take forever…

Stopped off at a market to get supplies and ready to head out, las Mitras are behind us...

A little closer look, a "Mitra is the hat the Pope wears, so these three peaks supposedly resemble it

Notice how sweaty and sick I look compared to the two seasoned climbers behind me

Made it up to about 3,600 feet before we stopped at a corner of a switchback to make camp. Made a fire and cooked steak for dinner.

Our morning view from the campsite...

Our campsite was at the base of this peak

Sunrise

At about 4,500 feet, getting ready to check out some old mining caverns.

Finally made it back down, found our way to a road with a cab and went home. It was a great Christmas present!

Home Again

Well we made it back to Indiana safely and without any problems, except a thirty mph cross wind during landing in Detroit, that was a lot of fun!!!  I am still going through all of the photos that I took but I wanted to share a couple of shots that I took at the Cintermex in Monterrey. They were taken with the 5D and Sigma 24-70 2.8 at f/9 and converted to B&W using Photoshop CS3 with Jeff Ascough’s actions. (Love these by the way!)

I did spend two days camping in the Sierra Madre mountains so I have some really cool photos from that that I am planning on sharing sometime this week. By the way I also got a new monitor for Christmas, the Samsung T260 26″ LCD. It is huge and sweet, not to mention when I get drained on editing, I can always just switch over to the HDMI connection and play a little Call of Duty on my Xbox 360 at full 1080p. Very Nice!!