Seven Days in Cambria

Here are a few images from Cambria, Ca. I decided not to bring my camera, our vehicle was full almost bursting at the seams. My wife had packed her little pink point-n-shoot camera though and we captured these precious moments:


In this photo, Natalie and I are taking a little break from shopping. Notice that Natalie is in full vacation mode - relaxed with sunglasses on.


Natalie is enjoying the sand, surf, & sun. This is the William Randolph Hearst Memorial State Beach located just west of Hearst Castle.


This photo of us was taken by Alison, Natalie's Nana. This day was very windy but this particular beach is sheltered (see behind us) which made it a very enjoyable day at the beach.


This sunset had a bit more red/orange color to it due to the fires up north. In both images you can see smoke in the sky. Over the next couple of days, ash from the fires accumulated on our car.


Both sunset images were taken along the Moonstone Beach Dr.


Here we are taking a tour of Hearst Castle. The views from here are amazing, just wished I would of brought my camera with me. I could of carried it in the backback I was wearing, Natalie lasted about 30 minutes in it.


My wife took this photo of our feet in the sand. Isn't she very creative?!


Natalie is very much enjoying the beach.


Family photo of us. Behind us is a castle with a moat. This castle was built for Natalie. Even though she loved the beach and enjoyed the waves from afar she was not too fond of the cold ocean water. The castle with moat kept her dry.

Backyard Fun

Sara is teaching Natalie how to smell the flowers.



As you can see Natalie has almost got the technique down.

Mother's Day gift for my wife

My wife received a camera for Mother's day. Here are a couple shots of her in action with her new pink Canon PowerShot SD 1100 IS.


Above image Natalie is probably thinking why do they need two cameras!


Striking a pose for her Momma!


My wife's pink camera in action, upclose you can see the "face recognition" technology in full effect! The camera also does movies as well, see post below.

Stellina (Little Star)

Here's a short video of Natalie playing the piano. She's been practicing for a couple of weeks now.



Can you name that tune?

One

Natalie is one year old! Here are a few images from her birthday party this past Saturday.


Not sure what to do with her birthday cake.



Natalie on her bike she received from her Auntie Corinne and Uncle Todd. For more images visit her blog Natalie.RonaldMariano.com.

My Favorite Subject

What a ham!





Natalie loves the camera.

Happy Holidays

Wishing you the best this holiday season.




After the butterfly comes the BIKE. Can't wait!

Looking Back

I've always wanted to do a cycling calendar like Graham Watson (good stuff) but just never have gotten around to doing it. I'm surprised no one else has attempted to create one for the Northern California cycling scene. I guess I'm the first (that I know of). I started off with creating just one but I had too many favorite images to choose from so I ended up creating two versions, a men's version and a women's version.



I ordered one of each to see how they turned out. I was quite impressed with the quality of the calendars. I went with an online self-publishing company lulu.com. Basically, one uploads one's work to lulu.com, they print it out and sell your work for you. Below are the actual calendars:



Turn around time for the calendars from print to my mailbox was 6 days. I opted for the Priority mail shipping because I was eager to see the results before I started to sell them. I wanted to make sure that they turned out as good I had hoped. Boy, I was not disappointed!

Click here for more details regarding my 2008 Cycling Calendars.

6 Months Old

Six months in 6 seconds, here is a collage of Natalie images taken every month for the last 6 months.


Time has gone by so quick! She has gotten so big. She can now sit up by herself. She cannot crawl just yet but she has the movements to start crawling soon. She will be celebrating her first Halloween later this month, so be sure to check out all of her adventures at her blog Natalie.RonaldMariano.com.

Mission Complete

I can now say that our backyard is complete. See prior entry for "before" images. The image below was taken in the early morning just as the sun was rising. If you were wondering what that red thing is hanging from the patio cover click here and then hit the play button.


I will have to take another photo during the evening to show off the landscaping lighting we installed. We think the backyard turned out fabulous! Now that the back yard is done we can now turn our focus to the front yard. The builder provided the landscaping for the front which is OK but we have other plans. So far, we've added landscape lighting which looks spectacular in the evening but during the day the front looks quite bland. So, stay tuned for the changes...