Surfing in Pacifica, California

This past weekend we went to Pacifica, California for a morning of surfing (for the husband) and a stroll through the hills and neighborhood for me. I wanted to follow the Pacific trail but couldn't quite follow the trail well enough and I ended up exploring the town of Pacifica instead. I found a cool house on a tree and a great overlook from where to photograph all the surfers that showed up to the beach that day!

Enjoy! For more fun photos, visit my Etsy store or go to my website.

Tilt Shift on a Boat on the San Francisco Bay

Last week was my birthday and, to celebrate, we took a trip to Angel Island to go hiking. But, before that, my husband surprised me with a cool camera lens that creates an awesome blurred effect, like a tilt-shift lens. It was so exciting to get a new lens, so I took it with me and managed to get some good photos from the boat and from the hike using it. As mentioned in the website, it takes a lot of practice to learn how to get your perfect shot with this lens, but I think I did okay for it being my first time!

Enjoy! For more fun photos, visit my Etsy store or go to my website.

Moments in Black and White

These are some photos I took during our trip to Central Europe. These are photos I took quickly, trying to capture the moment. I love all of them and how they transport me to the places where I took them!

A student plays the piano in Bratislava early in the morning. When she was done, she disappeared, like a ghost.

An older woman and a young man have a conversation in Prague.

A couple kisses in an alley on Castle Hill in Budapest.

Farm Life in Salinas, CA

A few weeks ago, we spent a weekend in Salinas, California at a farm. We chose this area because of its easy access to Monterey, where we were planning on visiting the famous aquarium. Our stay at the farm was very fun and I got the chance of photographing farm life, which is not something that happens everyday when you life in a big city like San Francisco.

Here are some fun photos from our stay. For more fun photos, visit my Etsy store or check out my website.

A Little Bit of Munich

Munich was our first stop in our Central Europe trip and we had a great time there! Here are some shots I took while walking around the city, visiting the palace and exploring what the city has to offer!

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Yangshuo, China

This is kind of a tbt but done on a Friday. Recently, my screen saver started showing pictures from our 2007 trip to South East Asia. In that slideshow were the pictures from Yangshuo, China, an awesome and tiny town nestled in the middle of amazing and gigantic karst formations. Those are the formations that are usually depicted in traditional Chinese watercolor art, and this area of China is seen as one of the most beautiful in the country.

We didn't know all of this when we visited the town. Our main reason to visit the town was making a stop in China in order to get to Vietnam from Hong Kong in the most cost-efficient way. So, after taking a train from HK to mainland China, we jumped on a bus to the city of Guilin (where we thought we wanted to go!) but we were woken up by a man at 4 a.m. when we reached Yangshou, and we were told this was the town we really wanted to visit.  We did as we were told (the adventure of traveling and trusting people, right?) and we got off the bus in Yangshuo. It was dark and we just started walking, looking for a place to stay. Of course, at that time, everything was closed (did I mentioned we arrived there on Christmas Day?!)!

As soon as it got light enough outside to see the scenery around us, we saw the beautiful and gigantic karst that surrounded the town. After we found a place to stay and took a warm shower, we spent the next 3 days or so exploring the town and biking around the area. What a wonderful and peaceful place to explore. We had no map but still managed to bike all over the place and hike about 25 km along the Li River without much trouble.

Here are some pictures. They are almost 10 years old, taken with a very old and not fancy camera, but I think they do capture a bit of the essence of the place!

25 km walk/hike along the Li River, through fields, along beaches, crossing the river 3 times. Beautiful!

People in Yangshuo

View from Moon Hill. We biked to the trail head and then hiked up.

Our final river crossing during our hike.

Exploring the area around Yangshuo

Me, myself and the bike!

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic

Have you ever wanted to visit a town that resembles those you learn about only on fairytales? Well, then you should definitely head to Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic. An image is worth a thousand words, so here are a few images showing some of the beautiful sites we saw during our stay in this town!

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