She makes me smiles....

I love this face, both of them. The very reason(s) why I go to work, and work hard to make a life for this face(s). She makes my day, I look forward to coming home and seeing these face(s). She is my biggest fan, laughs at all of my jokes (thus far), eat my food (well what her mom makes), smiles at, starting to kiss me, hugs me (when she is tired and I'm holding her), she plays with me, she is the face that reminds me of her beautiful mother and how blessed I am. We will face the future together, the happy time, the sad time and hopefully we will face each other when I walk her down the aisle and as I bless her with the biggest daddy's kiss. She will face her future and hopefully some day, faces a face like this of her own and be so blessed as I am today.

This picture is to remind her to "Think Different" don't follow, be a leader.

Things are always looking up, one step at a time.

Hair in placed

I count my blessing daily. I feel really blessed to have a great family, a beautiful wife, and the cutest daughter.

One of Sharon's friend totally blessed Hannah with these beautiful hair clip last week. And it so appropriate because my daughter is so hip already. At the old age of 13 months she is so fashionable and now sporting these clips, she is golden....and the girls around the block totally green envy for her hair clips.

It's HOT....in Palm Desert.

We went to Palm Desert for the weekend for some R&R. Commonly, on a regular weekend I would have been at a wedding capturing images for other people, but this weekend, the pictures are closer to my heart.

My wife really captured it. This is super special to me.

These eyes, when they are looking at you...everything kinda stop.
And what matters most become true reality.

This was a perfect directional light, I love, love this face.

The best smiles on the planet.

This is her first time in the pool.

This is got to be two of my favorites, but off-course I have tons of favorites.
When she smiles or not

My two best girls.

I got this from my friend Mike Meyer (not Shrek or the actor), what a great way to start the week with...let me know what you think.

1.. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk,
smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
2. Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a
lock if you have to.
3. When you wake up in the morning complete the following
statement, 'My purpose is to __________ today.'
4. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less
food that is manufactured in plants.
5. Drink green tea and plenty of water. Eat blueberries,
wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli , almonds & walnuts.
6. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
7. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy
vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things
you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the
positive present moment.
8. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner
like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
9. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
10. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
11. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does..
12. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
13. Make peace with your past so it won't spoil the present.
14. Don't compare your life to others'. You have no idea
what their journey is all about.
15. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
16. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: 'In
five years, will this matter?'
17. Forgive everyone for everything.
18. What other people think of you is none of your business.
19. GOD heals everything.
20. However good or bad a situation is, it will change..
21. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your
friends will. Stay in touch!!!
22. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
23. Each night before you go to bed complete the following
statements: I am thankful for __________.
Today I accomplished _________.
24. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
25. Please share this with everyone you care about.

The Croteaus

This is Joao, Claudia and Thia's birthday party.

NEW WEB SITE!!! WooHoo!

Ok, first of all; all of you who follow my blog, you guys ROCK! and now.....I am so bless to present my web site. http://www.JackRatana.com

Also, want to say thank you to Dave Everdez at Everdez Web Design for a great job with this site. If you are looking to get a website, this guy is your man. Tell him JackRatana sends ya.

Please check it out and let me know what you think k. THANK YOU SO MUCH, I so appreciate YOU.

Saturates

We went for a walk today in the late afternoon, and I couldn't help but feel absorbed, steep, imbue, infused, pervaded, permeate with saturation.

purple glides supply
as green gloom with fresh perfumes

blue follows as their feet thrust and push away

as lonely, as hollow, as wide
the hand tics

by this shadows of my heart

stand by this point that pierces...

this way, through the drops I follow...

In the quiet...

Stillness I know....silence's calling
It beckons me to wallow....there
there I swell to shelter to be sheltered
calmness rules my heart and my hands
my eyes with the dryness it's brittle to dust
just like the shelves there it sit
in waiting to get un-dust
but not by swiffer nor dust mites
but by wind, calm, illusive, shivers
down my spines...to that stillness; I know of...
very well.
-------------------------------------------------
Listening to: "The Stand" "United We Stand"

Reading: Revelation 9, Ezekiel 22-24
--------------------------------------------

I don't know about you but sometime, you get stuck in a place;
a place of uncomfortableness. A place of rash, epidemic of melancholically. It's hard to be strong, sometime. Sometime, you want to be weak and push away to a place of solitude where no souls are allow. Nor comfort words that are shallow just to place there to leave a mark. Or a spot of facile superficialness. It's hard to be genuine and sincere especially when you really don't know what to say or do. In my opinion, you really don't have to say much....I think being there without a word speaks volumes. Your action is outweighed the shallowness of your words. Words are letters that are put together to give a meaning. Actions are deeds put together to backup the meaning of your words.

At the Getty...

We went to the Getty LA yesterday, and oh it was so much fun. I've ask my friend Jonathan to meet me there and bust out his new Cannon40D to capture the day with me, and the pictures were stellar.

We were also so blessed to have our friend Helen with us, we had soooooo much fun and took so much pictures there. August Sanders a German photographer who photographed subjects from all walks of life and created a typological catalogue of more than six hundred photographs of the German people. Although the Nazis banned the portraits in the 1930s because the subjects did not adhere to the ideal Aryan type, Sander continued to make photographs. Helen pointed out that there were several Jewish portraits photo for passports displayed there. I wonder how many of the ones photographed made it out, but for sure it got me thinking.

I captured this, while the sun was going down and got some flares and made Helen shine with framing glows.

Helen is an incredible human being and a great friend to us. We totally love her and I told her yesterday that when she gets married, I want to photograph them at the Getty lawn. She will make one man very blessed and lucky some day....more blessed than luck fo-sho.



and this girl? what's up with her? look at the lady behind her laughing...she's funny.



and this is her hot mama....



Her papa is pretty cool in this picture, don't you think?