Creative photography.

Our daughter took this great picture of our son doing a skateboard trick. They did this completely on their own. When I saw the picture I was impressed with the results and wanted to share it with all of you.

A moment of accomplishment

Our son received his training bag to begin his black belt leadership training program. We are very proud of him. We have never seen our son so focused and intensive. He was very proud to have accomplished this goal in such a short period of time.

Visiting Newburyport

Since I am on vacation this week I decided to take a drive upto Newburyport. This is one of my favoriate places in Massachusetts. It really is beautiful. I took these pictures with my son. Let me know what you think. You can see the rest of them here. There was a live band playing tonight on the waterfront green. There was also a Tallship docked by the boardwalk. After shooting some photographs, my son and I grabbed a slice of pizza.

Confidence

Ok for those that don't enjoy my family values posting you can tune out. I am sharing this for the rest of you. My son received his invitation to participate in a martial arts class. He received his invitation in 4 weeks. The school instructor told us that it was a record for the quickest time someone has ever gotten their invitation to join the leadership training program. I realized how much of an accomplishment this was when yesterday in my son's class another girl received her invitation to join the program after 1 year.

I met with the instructor to see how much the program cost. The instructor described how one of the key areas that martial arts helps kids is with their self confidence. He described how many parents use this training to instill self confidence in their kids so that when they reach middle school and high school they are prepared. Prepared to say no to bad habits and peer pressure. Prepared to do what is right even when it isn't the popular thing to do. Many parents use this training to help their kids stay on a healthy and successfully path early in their lives.

Those same pressures existed when I was a kid. This evening I began thinking back to when I was a kid. I was never embarrassed to say no. I never cared if others thought something wasn't cool. I did what I thought would allow me to continue on my path of life. This self confidence didn't come for a martial arts classes. It came from my parents. They instilled in a me the values that ultimately resulted in having self confidence.

They provided me so many examples of their courage in overcoming life's challenges. One of the earliest one's was coming to a new country with just a suitcase, fourth grade education and not being able to speak English. They both speak and write English now.

They provided me with a sense of purpose in accomplishing something better in my life. How could I not have that purpose when you see your parents accomplish so much when they had such few opportunities and started with nothing.

They provided me a sense of survival to do what needs to be done to do well in life. To work hard and do what isn't comfortable sometimes. To take the more difficult path if in the long run the result is a greater good.

Purpose, survival and accomplishment provided the foundation for the confidence I had as a kid and that I think I still have now. My parents didn't have to buy it at a martial arts studio. They learned it from their parents and then taught me. I hope that I can teach it to our kids as well as my parents taught me.

Purpose, survival and accomplishment are some of my family values.

Mount Washington Mini Vacation

Since we weren't able to go to Portugal this year we decided to take a little mini vacation. We just got back from a few days at the Mount Washington Hotel and Resort. It was incredible getting to see the beautiful White mountain range in from such an extravagant place. We even got to experience the COG railroad for the first time. Thanks to my wife for finding a great deal on the hotel to make this trip affordable enough for our family to have a summer vacation. Here are some pictures that I took on the trip. I took these with my old camera since it was family time and not carlos picture time. Although I did chase some magical light at sunrise for the first time in my life I think I actually took a picture of the sunrise. A feat my wife thought I would never accomplish :-) I must really like this stuff to drag myself out of bed this early in the morning.

Cranes Beach Sand Castle's

I took the kids to the Crane Beach Sand Sculpture Contest this weekend. The theme was the Big Dig which is the nick name given to the Central Artery project in Boston that has cost the country Billions of dollars. It is also what has been responsible for driving up home construction costs in the Boston area. This project has caused many of the local contractors to compete within the big dig to find labor. The sculptures were pretty cool however I wasn't as impressed as I thought I was going to be with the event. I did enjoy the live band on the beach that was pretty cool. But the quality and quantity of sand sculptures wasn't what I was expecting. Here are some pictures that I took. Let me know what you think of them.

Visting College Friends at Watch Hill

Take a break and go! Go visit your friends or family. That is what we did this Wednesday. I took a vacation day and went with my family to visit Michael, Tina, John and their kids. They were spending some time vacationing at Watch Hill. We had awesome weather and great time! We did some boogie boarding, swiming and sand castle building. And of course Michael and Tina treated us to a great Italian dinner on the patio overlooking the sunset! My wife had the great idea for the adults to eat on the porch and all the kids had to sit inside.

The types of beaches you go to change as you get older. This beach is perfect for family and kids. Waves are just the right size for the kids... and there weren't too many outrageous bikini's. Notice that didn't say none. There was this one guy wearing one of those European men's bikini's that didn't phase me.. but I think was getting all the ladies worked up. It was nice seeing Michael, Tina, John and their kids.

Here are some pictures including some that I took on the ride home. My wife was kind enough to be the designated driver.



To see the rest of the photos I took go here

Visiting Portsmouth, New Hampshire

We went to Portsmouth, New Hampshire a few weekends ago to celebrate a family event. Portsmouth is a beautiful coastal community. I actually onced worked there in the dot com days. While there we saw the America's tall ship which was visiting. I took a bunch of pictures with my new lens that my wife gave me for a gift. This lens rocks!!! Here are some of the better one's. I have always hated pictures of flowers... but I couldn't resist how some of that magical light was light shining on these flowers (RUDBECKIA) at Prescott Park. The park has a huge garden that shows all the different varieties of perrenials. This women was relaxing enjoying the gardens as the sun was setting. It kind of reminded me of an over done picture/painting.. but hey.. I'll take what I can get.

Sometimes the best things in life are free.

We saw the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Boston City Hall Square. It was an excellent concert. Shows once again that sometime the best things in life are free, just like this concert. You should have seen Marco, Lisa and I slam dancing in front of the stage! Kidding. We weren't but other's were.




Check out the slide show of all the pictures I took here

Vote for my cows!!!

I entered a photography contest this past weekend in a new website. The website is called heyletsgo.com. It is geared towards helping you know what is going on in Boston. They are sponsoring a photo contest of who can take the best picture of the Boston Cows. Over 100 cows were sponsored by companies to be painted and place across the city of Boston and Cambridge. At the end of August these cows will be auctioned and the proceeds will be used for the JimmyFund and cancer research. So those of you that would like to support me and my photography I ask that you go give 5 stars to my cows. Simply register for the web site and upload a picture of anything to represent yourself and then vote! Here is a picture of one of the cows that I think maybe a winner. Thanks!