Posting from the road. I did not plan on doing much work while on my vacation but I just can not stop. I love what I do. So a few days ago while hanging out with my family, drinking some German beer and eating some great food on a beautiful fall day, I grabbed my camera to take some fun shots of my people. I realized that I photographed so many people/weddings over the last few years but I never took the time to take some images of the people I love. My family. So this post is a personal one. Next time you are around your family take some pictures of them. Here are some of my peeps. Nothing fancy, nothing set up.

Enjoy your weekend. We will be back home in Miami tomorrow fully charged and ready to start our wedding season and kick some ass.

Here is a great image of my mom again

Marcel is the 18 month old of my little sister. He looks so Irish with that hat.

My sister, Marcel & Frank (the tank)


Already checking out the beer.

My dad in his back yard “winery”

Mom & Dad

Dog #1. Sushi.

Dog #2. Rock. With a feather in his mouth and his favorite toy

Candace looking beautiful as always.

Last but not least a self portrait of yours truly.

We decided to cut the Trip to Amsterdam and drive back home in favor of spending more time with my family before we head back home on Sunday. I have completely underestimated this trade show. It was one of the largest trade shows I have ever been to  (not just photography). They had about 14 halls as large as a football stadium. Canon owned the show with one hall just for themselves. I must have spent an entire day checking out Canon products. I love Canon, wink wink

I also checked out Nikon and Leica. I am really impressed with the products and the overall quality of all Leica products. The star of the show was the 5D Mark II. Everyone wanted to check out that camera. I actually had the chance to play with it twice. My first impression was very good. It looks like they have used the same weather proof material that only the Mark II & III have. There is also a complete new UI that seemed less cluttered and clean. The focus with “L” series lenses seemed very responsive and fast. The quality of  the HD video looked insane on the monitor they had set up. I was not able to test that but it looks like you are able to shoot and then do video clips at the same time which can be very useful for small clips during ceremonies. The ISO looked amazing at 6400 and very acceptable at 12800. I am going to get one when they become available in November. Canon also has a new L series 24 mm 1.4 lens that looked tight.

I also talked to people at Nikon about a “try out” equipment program. I really want to test the D3 and some of the lenses. As soon as I have worked with that camera I will be able to make a much better comparison.

Here are some images I took during the Photokina. I am full of new knowlage and inspiration every time I go to a trade show. I cant wait to return back home and start my wedding season.Happy Friday.

This is my favorite shot I took. 2 elderly people sitting in front of some sexy prints. Good timing.

Check out the paparazzi

Here she is (all my cameras are she’s) the new 5D Mark II


That is the new 24 mm 1.4 on the 5D Mark II. A beauty of a lens.

Paris Hilton look alike

I loved the booth display of the “Holga”

Canon dropped the hammer with the largest booth.


Check out the boots on that guy. Sweet Jesus.

The Mark Ds III with the 300 mm 2.0. $15k in my hand

Well I am officially way behind with my blogging but I do have an excuse for that…I’m still on Vacation. Instead of spending hours on the computer, its nice to travel, spend time with family and eat way too many gelatos in Rome.

If you follow my status updates on Twitter or Facebook (even by clicking the small “t” icon) than you know about some of the experiences we have had. Perhaps we are too picky about food, but we had a hard time finding great Italian food in Rome. We did find a few amazing places after talking to insiders and locals. Candace has a detailed post on her blog about food and restaurants we found. We went to Rome for 2 main reasons. To try the food and to take pictures (obviously). I am not so much the kind of guy that goes to the touristy attractions and takes pictures of himself standing in front of every attraction, It’s not my king of bag.

Back to the food, avoid eating near attractions, stay away from places with waiters in the street asking you (in English) to come in, if you hear people talking English or any other language than Italian…get out, run if the menu has pictures of food and it’s in English, if you sit in a coffee near the Colosseum and you see a group of tourists on Segeway’s pass by than you know your espresso will cost 5x more than it should. Capicse? If not forgetaboutit.

Not everything was bad, we had an amazing hotel in the center of Rome, all locals we talked to were very friendly and helpful, amazing picture perfect weather and we saw De Niro and Pacino at a red carpet premiere of their new movie Righteous Kill. Vito and Michael Corleone in Italy…how cool is that?

We found the good places by asking locals and by walking AWAY from the beaten (popular) paths. With all the eating we did and trust me it was way more than we do at home, we managed to lose weight by walking 20-30 miles. After 7-8 gelatos I am good for a long time. Stracciatella and Hazelnut were my favorites.

Anyway I have over 2000 images to look at so here are just a few teaser images for now but I will prep a very cool slideshow once I am back home behind a computer working 10+ hours again, yey. Have a relaxing weekend, turn that computer off…. but first check out these teasers.

The “Carabinieri” Italian police


Twilight shot of the Colosseum. I think it was worth waiting for this.

Italy premier of Righteous Kill just 2 blocks from our hotel. I pushed myself through with the paparazzi




I had about 7-8 of these beauties.

Colosseum

St Peter’s Basillica


Castel St. Angelo

We saw at least 3 weddings on a Tuesday near the Colosseum. Let me know if you want to get married in Rome… we travel ;)


Candace checking out the Colosseum from our tour bus


Italians love to take lots of breaks from work

Nice flair shot of the Colosseum


Small streets off the beaten path were my favorites to see and shoot.

Check out these “knockers”

Nice back light and flair on this shot of my favorite wife


Piazza Venezia


This one is probably my favorite image. It will look great in my studio on a canvas.