Models #1

Party was really interesting. Great models, great scenery, nice light, many opportunities to learn something... Below I'll show you first part of my pics taken. These pictures are presented here only to show my first attempts to photograph models, so copying and using them is prohibited! If you want to see professionally taken pictures of this girl, please try this site: portfolio.

Coming soon next models and next pictures, but I see I need more time to choose pics and fix them a little bit...

Photo Workshop - models

Today I go for 2 days workshop. I hope to have a chance to take pictures of some models and learn a little from this domain of photography. But the best is that I have to do it as my business duty. This event is organized by my department in my corporation and I have to be there with my customers. It's really nice while you can join your hobby with duties. Unfortunately it's very rare opportunity to do so :(
Workshop will be organized in Magellan Hotel near Piotrków Trybunalski, so if weather will be nice, I hope to put some more pictures from the area here. Keep waiting... Hope to put something on Monday, June 1st.

National Parks Quarters!!! Wow!!!

According to US Mint "Beginning in 2010, the United States Mint will issue coins featuring national parks and other national sites with new quarter-dollars minted and issued in accordance with the "America's Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008" . Thanks to this innovative multi-year program, approximately every 10 weeks you will see a new design emblematic of a national site depicted on the reverse of the quarter."

I'm back! Welcome to the office!

So finally I'm back in Warsaw. It's funny story with swine flu - at all the airports I visited during my trip back, nobody mentioned anything about the risk, but in Warsaw.... of course, in Warsaw there's a team of girls awaiting all coming passengers and giving them leaflet with important swine flu informations... funny, really funny. Media can do everything - it's the most powerful "government" of the world...
The other funny story happened when I came to my office. I just found something like this:

It was really good, artistic and crude joke prepared by my nice collegues... we had a lot of fun and many good pictures! Thanks guys!

Getting back home

Today is our last day in States :( We got back to Los Angeles to catch plane home. Weather here is completely different, a little bit more cloudy and below 20C. Now it's time to sleep. Wake-up at 6am local time and plane at 8:30am. So good night!

Btw:
In the morning, while leaving Las Vegas, one movie came to my mind - "Leaving Las Vegas". Have you seen it?

Movie poster image comes from MovieGoods site. If you like it, buy it!

Scorching Las Vegas

Last 3 nights we spent in Vegas. On the first day in the sin city, we just had a walk over the most famous MGM Grand, New York, New York, Planet Hollywood and Paris and later in the evening we went to Treasure Island, Venetian and Bellagio (fountains, fountains! great stuff!!!). Days was very hot like 36C - 40C. During the most hot part of the first day, we went back to hotel to swim a little bit in the really freezing cold pool. In the evening we had a chance to see Sirens show in day light.
The other day was last shopping day. I visited my favorite REI store and bought some stuff for ongoing trips. We also dragged round some outlets - they had very good clearances, so again we had full bags of goods. Buying another suitcase got down to facts - it was a must!
Later in the evening I made my another dream to come true - I watched Phantom of the Opera in Venetian Las Vegas! It's worth every penny - show is incredible and I'm pretty sure it's impossible to see something like that in Europe. You can't even compare that show with polish Roma show...
On that last night we were staying in the "maze" of Venetian. Nice, big hotel, worth its price (if you make your reservation at promotional rates :). After the show we still had a chance to see Sirens one more time - this time in complete darkness. And it was really a different experience.

Sequoia National Park

Today we had a heavy day. Decided to make the whole road from Fresno to Las Vegas stopping by Sequoia National Park. It's not short, but we made it. Partially because visiting Sequoia National Park at this time of year doesn't make big sense - almost everything is closed and there's a lot of snow around. The only interesting thing was General Sherman tree - probably the biggest tree in the world. Thank to this circumstances we managed to get to Las Vegas at 21:20 and spend two next nights in my favorite Emerald Suites. But there's one more thing worth mentioning. It's perfect Italian restaurant in Tulare, CA. It's called La Piazza and we came across it completely accidentally. But they know how to cook Italian food. If you're close to Visalia you must visit this place and taste their pastas, soups and desserts.

Rainbow fall

Yosemite is the first park I've ever seen in States. Probably my favorite although it's hard to decide which one is the best. I also like Zion and maybe even more, but I just need more time to get familiar with both. Yesterday I took my kids there - to Yosemite. Day was beautiful and sunny and waterfalls looked presentable. Unfortunately many parts of park were still closed due to long winter. We even noticed snow in many places. In these circumstances we focused on Bridalveil Falls and main loop in Yosemite Valley. After that we also went to Mariposa Grove to admire giant sequoias. To completely appreciate this park you should have at least a week. It's not easy while you live at the other side of the ocean :(
Of course I managed to take some pictures (although it's hard when you don't have tripod).

Cloudy San Francisco

This morning we started in San Bruno and went to San Francisco. Left our car on a public parking for 15$/day and roamed over Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 area. My daughters enjoyed watching sea lions at Pier 39, then riding merry-go-round and later, in the afternoon watching very funny show of the juggler. I had a crab sandwich at Fisherman's Wharf and ladies had some bread at famous Boudin Bakery. I must say that this bread is really great. Later we went for a dessert in famous Ghirardelli chocolate factory - I definitely recommend this to every chocolate fan!
After few hours of roaming over we get back to our Highlander and started car sightseeing tour. First we saw Market street, then Chinese quarter and some hills up and down rides. Finally we made Lombard - crockedest San Francisco street and Golden Gate in the fog. After that we used Bay Bridge and headed to Yosemite direction finding nice Best Western in Tracy to get some sleep after such hard day.

1. SeaLions

2. Polish accent in Fisherman's Wharf :)

3. Great chocolate factory!

4. The only moment I was able to catch almost the whole bridge with no fog!

5. Even in bad weather you can catch some nice light...

Santa Clara and vicinity

After spending night in Lost Hills we headed to San Francisco early in the morning (like 9 or 10 am:). Because weather was getting worse, we decided to stop by Gilroy to visit nice outlet center. It was good idea. We bought a lot of cheap, but good stuff then headed to Santa Cruz to see the ocean for the last time. Unfortunately everything at Santa Cruz Boardwalk was closed, so we only walked around the beach counting dead birds and went to Santa Clara quickly. I had a plan to take a picture at Sun Microsystems headquarters as lon as it still has blue logo, not red and I still work for them, not for competition. Plan was successful and you can see the pictures below :)

Universal Studios Hollywood

Today we spent the whole day in Universal Studios Theme Park. It's not as big as Disneyland, but has plenty of interesting shows and attractions. We started with House of Horrors. It's really poor attraction and for sure it's not scaring. Then we headed to Shrek 4D - this one was a little better, but reminded me Bug's Life - again a lot of wind and water and 3D glasses. Of course you can watch it, but with no delight. Next was The Simpsons Ride - and it was worth visiting. Fortunately we had to wait only 10 minutes in line that was really short. I recommend this ride to everyone who likes Simpsons and some fear. Then came the best - Waterworld. I can definitely say that this is the best show I've ever seen live. I've taken plenty of nice pictures there.
After that I went for Terminator 2: 3D - it was a lot of marketing and a little of nice movie and effects. It's not something that goes into rapture over the show, but still is worth seeing. After that we had lunch and went to the lower deck for some even better shows and attractions. We started with Jurrasic Park (the whole family on one ride!) then made Revenge of the Mummy - this time only with my older daughter. This one is really thrilling to some people and thanks to that we had to wait only 5 minutes! Great! If you've never ridden fast roller coaster in almost complete darkness, it's definitely for you!
After this small portion of adrenalin we decided to see some more shows. First was Special Effects Stages, then Animal Actors. Unfortunately we hadn't time for Backdraft that I heard is great. We had to leave the park, but didn't miss many attractions. I think we did all the best and I'm happy we came there in May, because it's not very crowded then. I must say that this theme park is great, but you should go there rather with older kids, like 10-12 years old or more. My younger daughter was very angry on us that I didn't allow her to go to the Mummy and other rides, but she happily done Simpsons...
Please enjoy few pictures below...

Afternoon in Disneyland

Today we planned to visit Disneyland in the evening. On Fridays they have special shows and fireworks and are open till midnight! But we started with Adventure Park just to finish missing attractions on the list. I printed fastpasses for Soarin' over California then headed to ToyStory Mania for one more time. After that we still had over one hour of waiting before getting on Soarin' over California, so decided to see Alladin show that lasts 45 minutes. It was great - flying carpets, dragons belching with fire, love story, nice music and other entertaining stuff. I definitely recommend this show to everyone who want to know how to make a real show! You can't see such performance in Poland. It is done with flourish!
After the show we quickly headed to Soarin' over California and used our fastpasses to skip the veeeery long line. Then we were watching California from the sky - this attraction is must-see for everyone!!! One of the best in Adventure Park.
It got a little late so we decided to switch the parks and went to Disneyland for some attractions and fireworks. Before complete darkness and some rain we had time to ride It's a Small World and Gadget's Go Coaster. Both attractions are rather for little ones, but you can also enjoy them.
Then it was time for fireworks....great show, nice music, a lot of light and even flying tinkerbell. Just see some poor pictures......

Disneyland Adventure Park

Today was our second day in Disneyland. This time we headed to the other part - Disney's California Adventure Park. This park suppose to be dedicated to older kids, but actually it's for everyone - maybe except some nice rides that are a little more frightening and scaring - like California Screamin' or The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. But these rides we put off for later and started with something wet - Grizzly River Rafting. It was really nice and I got almost completely wet on it. We made it together - the whole family and finally dreams of my younger daughter came true - she wanted to be splashed by dolphins, than shamu, but we where too far from them. So she was happy to get wet with mountain river rafting.
Next really cool attraction was Toy Story Midway Mania - it's a kind of ride mixed with 3D glasses and shooting experience. You go through the alley of computer games and shoot everything that moves. Great adventure - at the end you got your score. I lost to my older daughter, because had only 73000 points and she had 74000. My younger one made 64000 on her second ride.
Next great ride was California Screamin' - the biggest roller coaster in the whole California Disneyland. It's big, has one loop (where you ride upside down) and some really sharp slopes. We made it together with my older daughter and even got our picture - unfortunately I don't have a scanner, so can't show it to you :(

I definitely recommend this last ride - it might be not for everyone, but it's worth doing!
Later we had to make younger happy and went to Bug's Life area. This time one of the coolest attraction was interactive cinema - I was spat on with the bug, pah! Just see some pictures (taken with IXUS 850).