Huy Cat Photography Blog

We took a quick stop in Washington D.C. before Thanksgiving this year. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t so cooperative. It was raining, and it was dark. The forecast said the next morning wasn’t going to get any better. So we took our chances and toured the capitol that night.

The US Capitol building

The White House

The Washington Monument

The Washington Monument from the World War II Memorial

Lincoln National Memorial

The next morning, we were back out on the capitol. This is thanks to our “extended-extended” family, Larry from Meiwah Restuarant, who arranged for us to get a nice tour of the US Capitol. By the way, everyone loved the meal we got from Meiwah. The food was amazing.

My parents were in town and they like to see the Georgia Mountains. So, we decided to grab the entire family and drive up a bit to Vogel State Park. They have lots of nice hiking trails, but we decided to take it safe and hiked to the nearby water fall. Here’s a few shots of the short trip to Vogel State Park.

Steve sold his first built home to my friend and co-worker Matt years ago. And let me tell you, it’s an amazing house that’s been featured in many magazines. Fast forward to today, Matt and I stopped by to see Steve’s latest home.

Driving up to the house, I see Open House signs that labeled the house as The Christmas House. This house is so big, that I didn’t even photograph half of it. So here’s just a few shots from this mansion.

First, the master bedroom. I loved this dome above.

Here’s a view heading upstairs from the main floor. You can see just part of the main foyer. Check out the railing work!

And another view of the upstairs.

And down a long hallway into another section of the house, is the in-law suite. Not shown is the kitchen just to the right.

Again, I didn’t even get to photograph the entire house. But more shots can be seen here. Shots include the basement and its bar, the living room, the master bathroom and master walk-in closet. I’m sure this house will be in many magazines to come.

As part of a trip to play in the USTA 3.5 National Championship, I was able to also take a quick tour of Las Vegas. This isn’t the first time I’ve photographed Las Vegas. But this is the first time I’ve been to some of the following places.
View all the pictures by clicking here.

The first part of the day trip started with a quick run to the Hoover Dam.

Then, down Las Vegas Blvd to the Stratosphere.

One of the neat thing about this visit is that we were able to arrive at the top of the Stratosphere Hotel just before sunset. Here’s a view from atop the Stratosphere minutes before sunset.

One of the craziest rides I can imagine is the X-Scream atop the Stratosphere. Imagine a ride hanging over the edge of the top of the  Stratoshpere.

Here’s another view of the sunset atop the Stratosphere

After a quick dinner delivery, we visited Fremont Street.

The next day, we took a quick walk around the Bellagio Casino. Here’s the Paris Casino from the Bellagio.

And returning back to the Bellagio, the sunset view of Paris.

SPRING BREAK – It’s that time of the year again and since we had a quick sneak peak at Myrtle Beach, SC a few weeks ago, the kids were very much in beach mode. So, after my friend mentioned Destin during a friendly game of cards, we decided to hook up for spring break in Florida.

Before we left town, the weather forecast was pretty bleak… rain all week down in Destin. With nothing else to do for spring break, we decided to chance it. We got there late in the afternoon after catching down during the travel down. Things were clearing up just a bit. After meeting up with Jeff, we were determine that we were going to at least see the beach, even if it’s double red flag warning level and no one else was on the beach.

All we could do was to just head out to a nice dinner. The next morning started out the same, a very isolated and quiet beach.

 

 

It would only be hours later when mass chaos would appear.

 

 

But let’s not get too far ahead here. The beach was still under double red flag warning. So, the kids decided to just start digging a hole in the beach.

 

 

and dig….

 

 

and dig…

 

 

and even the little ones were digging…

 

 

In between digging, they decided to take a little dip in the waters.

 

 

In the evening, we did more beach things.

 

 

like hunting for sand crabs. The kids found a few, but it must not be crab season.

 

 

By the end of our trip, the kids dug a big hole.

 

 

But others that gave up on digging, just decided to enjoy the day under the umbrella.

 

 

 

I first met both Alex and Brian on the tennis court. Alex came from the ranks of AA ALTA tennis, Brian came from a rival men’s team that we played each season. Apparantly, that’s also how they first met, on the tennis court. So when they asked me to take some engagement pictures, we first hit the courts!

To see a Proshow slideshow with music (click here). If you are having problems viewing with the higher quality Proshow slideshow, there’s an alternative Flash slideshow with music (click here). The Flash slideshow is a little larger to download and the quality is lower than the Proshow version.

(click here) to see the full set of pictures.

Then, we had to hit the fall landscapes. I love fall colors, and we couldn’t have picked a better weekend to take some fall pictures. Here’s a picture right from their own neighborhood.

After a quick lunch break, we drove up to Chota Falls. This is where they’re having their wedding. So, this gave me a chance to scope it all out. What a scenic location for a wedding.

Right about now, their butts are apparantly frozen from sitting on the rocks. Since these were long shutter shots, I had to ask them to sit there for quite a while.

I guess this is a case of turning lemons into lemonade. It was early Wednesday that I wanted to head over to Crooked Creek to take photos of the golf course during sunrise. These were to be my stock photos for the Traveler’s MS Celebrity Challenge that’s to occur later that day. To my disappointment, the morning started with a dense layer of fog. You can’t see half way down the fairway. So instead, I decided to just hunt around for some other photo opportunities as I waited for the fog to lift. Here’s one picture down a cart path of the third hole.