THE CONTEST
This is a picture of Ian spray painting at a location in Texas. I am also using another photo taken during our trip to the west coast this summer as the open image for the Blog.( in one of my early posted I did talk about this location)
Here is the first contest. If you can guess where we are we will submit your name into a box and select the winner next week. The winner will receive a gift certificate to "On The Square" in Tarboro for $50.
Send us an email with your best guess. Only one guess per person and I will post the winner next Wednesday.
Enter through the contact section of the web site. www.billgoode.com

we were spending time shopping in the Union Square area of Macy's during our San Francisco trip. The only way I could pass the time while the others were shopping was to play with my camera. As I was standing next to the escalator I noticed this interesting design. The images is looking down four stories.

How about a photo contest? I was thinking of hosting a photo contest through the blog and give away some cool prizes.Dinner for two at Tarboro's On The Square or a $250 gift card to the studio or a $100 gift certificate to your favorite store, anywhere! One of these will be the grand prize and we will offer a second and third prize. The details will be coming soon so stay in touch. Please give me some feed back if you are interested by going to the comment section of this posting. I will come up with a theme or use a suggested theme if you want to give us one. All you have to do is email us the image. Our panel of judges will go over the images and the winners will be posted on the web site. Sounds like fun!Let me know what you think.

Last Monday morning I had a chance walk downtown San Francisco around China Town in search of a photography studio I knew of. Across the street I notice the intense color of this store front. China Town is full of color and design everywhere.

WE were next in line for the cable car when this little girl kept bringing her head up playing peek a boo. I guess.The fastest camera I could get out of my bags was my video camera. Using the still feature I though it came out pretty cool.

One of the most interesting winery locations we visited was right out side the town of Healdsburg. Giovanni Foppiano is 97 years old and he signed a bottle for me. Right after that I captured a few images of him playing with his great grand daughter.I am always on the job. The interesting story about this family started with Giovanni Foppiano. He immigrated to the United States, arriving in New York from Genoa, Italy and traveled to California by way of Panama looking for gold. In 1864, Giovanni settled in Healdsburg, California. His son, Louis A. Foppiano was born in 1877 (father of Louis J.). Louis A. married Mathilda, the sister of one of his North Beach customers after three "arranged" dates. When Louis A. passed away in 1925, Louis J. inherited the responsibility of managing the family winery. In 1937, after the repeal of prohibition, Louis J. rebuilt the winery from the ground up, and Foppiano Wine Company became one of the first Sonoma County wineries to bottle wine under its own winery label.

In 1946, Louis J. married Della Bastoni of Santa Rosa. The couple was married for 56 years, and raised three children, Louis M., Rod, and Susan. Son Rod met an untimely death, passing away from leukemia in the 1980s. Louis J.'s wife Della died on November 21, 2002. The is a link to their web site.http://www.foppiano.com/

If you think we have it bad in North Carolina when it comes to gas prices. This was a low day.

Yesterday we had a chance to drive the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to Napa Valley.

Out trip would not be complete without a ride on the Cable Car. This is how we got to the shopping area downtown from the Waterfront. It was an adventure worth taking.We are just getting used to West Coast time but still getting up every morning at 4:am. We have one more day of images on the street so I will post again tonight. Tomorrow morning its back to the real world. Happy MLK day.

One of the hottest shopping areas in San Francisco is Union Square in the downtown area. Amy was seen entering one of her favorite places.

Many of the tasting areas were in the town of Heraldsburg. A beautiful little town with many shops and restaurants some of the biggest names in the wine business have tasting rooms located here.

Yesterday we drove to the wine country for a day of wine tasting and great food. Many of the locations were part of a tasting festival so our timing was perfect.Each location had a food spread to offer.The Zin Restaurant in Healdsburg CA had the best Gumbo in the world.That was worth the trip.Check them out at www.zinrestaurant.com

After returning from the Island of Alcatraz we walked along the waterfront. We had a chance to see the "bushman".One thing San Francisco has more of is homeless people working every angle they can for a handout. We were walking along the boardwalk area and everyone was standing around watching this guy hide behind a small bush he was holding. As someone would walk along unaware, he would shake one of the bushes at them for a quick scare. Everyone would laugh knowing what was going to happen.It was harmless fun for the laugh and his creative way to make a dollar.Here is a quick video of The Bushman.

The weather was beautiful on Saturday while walking all around Alcatraz. The view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the back side of the island

It was a bit creepy hearing the history behind this Island. Amy was entering D block while following the audio tour.

Our first adventure was a trip to Alcatraz.

We are having a great time in San Francisco so I want to post a few images.This is the view from Ian and Lori's apartment.

EASTER SPECIAL starting Sunday March 2nd for four days only until Wednesday. We just posted the dates and we are already getting calls. It should be an exciting and fun portrait special this year. The live bunnies are always an adventure.If you want to view the package prices I have included link to the PDF file. If you have a problem viewing please call the studio.

I have tons of boxes of old pictures from my parents younger days. Think how it would have been if the digital world started back in the 40's. There is nothing like a photo album to flip through and enjoy and the black & white from back then was just beautiful. Today most of our most special moments live in a computer we have to sit in front to enjoy. People are not printing as much anymore. One reason is when your not spending money on film we shoot so much more with digital and it is less costly to just watch the monitor. I was going through some files and making CD's of my personal images as a back up the other day and came across this great image of me and the brothers taken during Ian's wedding weekend OVER A YEAR AGO! It's me, Rich from NJ and brother Tom from Colorado.It's the first time we were together in almost two years. I forgot about this one and would have enjoyed having it in a frame.
I thought I would include this image. I am including a link to a new studio movie I have posted to our website. You may want to check out.Studio Movie