Tart

Just wanted to share a few shots from Tart, the restaurant located in Farmer's Daughter Hotel on Fairfax. Na and I had a chance to go out there a few weeks ago on a weeknight, so we took advantage of the cool patio seating especially on a warm summer night...

In case you were wondering what the little strips of paper are...they are the internet access passwords for free wireless!

Chef George!

I had another chance to do some food photography for Chris George's creations a few weeks ago at the Roy's in Pasadena. His food is not only pretty to look at but they taste just as good too! He is very creative with the colors of the ingredients in that the plate presents itself as a piece of art...I almost feel bad about eating them...almost. Here are some of my favorites from that shoot...

Yosemite National Park

We were lucky enough to reserve a canvas tent at Yosemite's Curry Village this past July for a weekend trip. It was the first time for most of us staying in the park so we were quite excited. The weather was warm but the water was still flowing nicely from this past winter's snow storms. We rode bikes around the valley, drove up to Glacier Point for the spectacular view, and enjoyed the Yosemite valley floor tour and the Mariposa Grove tour. Here are some pictures from that weekend...

The view from Glacier Point

Na took this great picture of Kenji while he was trying to burn off some excess energy on the Ahwahnee lawn

Here is a series of Kenji jumping off a huge rock on Mirror Lake.

One of the rooms in the lobby of the Ahwahnee Hotel. BTW, how interested does Kenji look about being in the picture?

Yosemite!

Just started looking through some pictures from our trip to Yosemite from a couple of weeks ago and just couldn't resist the view of Half Dome from Glacier Point at sunset. More to come for sure!

Kings Canyon

Just like our trip in January to Death Valley, a few of us (Joe, Jim, Hoa and myself) went camping in Kings Canyon a couple of weeks ago. This trip was strictly about photography, grilling and enjoying the beauty of Kings Canyon. Unfortunately, most of us got some mosquito bites b/c they were everywhere!...but I gotta say Joe had it the worst. Poor guy looked like he had some sort of skin disease almost. Anyways, here are some pictures from the weekend...

2-Year Wedding Anniversary in Ojai

Being that Na and I love to travel, we're always looking for a new destination to visit. For our 2nd wedding anniversary, we decided to stay in Ojai for the weekend since neither one of us have been there before. Ojai seemed to have the nice small town feel that is only an hour and a half away from Los Angeles, but is worlds away in terms of pace and lifestyle. Luckily for us, we were able to find a deal at the Ojai Valley Inn and Spa. This place rocks! Their attention to detail and service is everything you'd expect for a resort of this caliber. And the best part...every single employee was helpful, friendly and always had a smile on their faces...I mean everyone! They looked like they wanted to be there and that's extremely rare to see...at least from my experience. Here are some of my favorite shots from the weekend...

The main entrance...

The hallway from our room and the main lobby

The world famous Spa... complimentary yoga & fitness classes with your stay!

Some shots around the resort...

The little surprise they left for us in the room upon arrival (Obviously, we didn't wait too long to dig in!)

The town of Ojai (we rode our Electras all around town)

These were taken at the local farmer's market that takes place every Sunday

Iron Mountain Boys, a bluegrass band that played at the farmer's market (they were hilarious!)

And of course...some of the delicious food we ate! The steak and rack of lamb from Suzanne's were awesome!

On the way to Ojai, Na found a local winery so we stopped by and tried out some local wines!

Chris George

Had a chance to do some food photography last week for Chris George, the executive chef at Roy's in Pasadena. This is my first attempt at lighting food. Used a very simple set-up...one softbox and one bounce card.