Happy Independence Day!

I hope everyone has a great day full of hot dogs, and cold beer or soda for those of us that don’t like or can’t drink beer.

One thing that I find interesting about the 4th of July is that every year it’s something different for me. I’ve never done anything the same for three years in a row. It’s always changing. That kind of makes me sad. I remember growing up and Christmas was always the same, Easter was always the same, Thanksgiving was always the same, and even Mother’s day was always the same(Chinese Food). But the 4th of July was always different for some reason, and it’s stayed that way since.

Last year Sarah and I went to our friends house in Calabasas that overlooks the high-school there and watched the fireworks along with some ribs and hamburgers.

This year we get to help our friends move into their new home and then go meet up with my sister Kate at our friends who live in Malibu; the Carpenters. I’ve been there for the 4th before, but 3 years ago. Maybe I’ll be there again next year? Probably not looking at my track record.

Here are some photos that I took last year from the 4th:

Update!!! 7/6/09

Well we had a ton of fun at the Carpenters. We brought some wine along, but soon found out that it was an alcohol free party(we didn’t get the email and got invited by phone the day before.)

The Carpenters live on this pretty cool piece of property in Malibu off of Decker Canyon Rd. There are some cool rock formations, a creek, a small vineyard, and a cool old barn that’s mostly just beams… We were playing some pretty good music up there all evening. I’d love to set up a photoshoot down there some day… some amazing backgrounds.

Anyway, I decided to pack light and didn’t bring my tripod because I didn’t plan on taking any photos of fireworks this year. Well, I eventually did because we drove to a location overlooking the ocean, and the moon was shimmering off of the water… It was beautiful. I’ll have to go back soon to just get some still shots with a tripod. I had to seet the shutter to about 10 seconds to let the light trickle into the f/11 aperture.

Here are some photos of what I got: