Loved it. Loved it, not only because I love food and grew up watching Julia Childs PBS shows, while my mom folded laundry in the basement. No, I loved it because I had a chance to watch passion acted upon. Topo many of us have a passion we never do anything about. We all may obsess about it. But only a few act upon it. Gary Vaynerchuck’s “Crush It!
” is a book about how to “act upon your passion”. The problem though is that many people will read his book and just say “yeah that’s what I need to do” and go on thinking about it.

I think I have a solution. Do something stupid. Yep. Go out and do something quickly before you have time to think about it and figure out if it was the right thing later. I wouldn’t be in Spain right now if I had thought about it. Gabriella and I bought a ticket because we could, and look, now we live here. Our passion: exploring the world. At this point we’ve traveled throughout Spain and Portugal. Visited London and Norway numerous times, and have been to India. A series of lucky breaks and a lot of hard work has kept this project/dream/experiment alive. But we’re doing it, and we wouldn’t be here still if we had thought about it.

Juila and Julia both did something, whether or not they were sure what they were doing. They figured it out along the way. They had fun. They made their dreams come true. My dreams are still figuring themselves out…but I’ll keep doing what I need to do, and from time to time, I’ll jump feet first into something I know nothing about, just to see what happens.

Enjoy the chickens:

Sitting a few meters away on a lawn chair I quickly grabbed my camera and shot about 30 photos in rapid fire style of my brother in law throwing his kids in the air, while in the pool. After loading them to the computer and browsing through I was shocked, no actually some what stunned that this one, turned out so good. Great composition and colors. I have to say this sums up the days events…lot’s of smiles and fun.

Today is my Dad’s birthday. Last year I had a chance to be in Minnesota for his birthday. That was for the big six, oh! One year later and I’m stuck on this side of the big pond unable to spend the day with him. This is the worst part of living abroad, but thanks to skype I get to talk to him weekly. My dad is a pretty darn amazing guy. He’s always available to talk, and he has gone farther than is necessary in helping Gabriella and my dream to live abroad come true. Both my parents are pretty special. I’m lucky to have them. Thanks to both of you.

So have a great day today, enjoy a cigar and some good scotch! I’ll be in Spain toasting you with a glass of bourbon, sadly without the cigar. We’ll see you in a few more months.

Love, Ryan

It took 20seconds to watch and 2 hrs of waiting, but heck we had fun! Only wish I had a better camera/lens combo. Hard to shoot at 1600iso with a non-IS 70-300mm lens on a cloudy day. Oh well, here’s a favorite.

An overexposed photo become magical. This was barely touched in post production and is a result of a great chance over exposure, and some beautiful scenery. Enjoy.

Fountains in Barcelona from ryan opaz on Vimeo.

Up on Montjuic every night you can enjoy a display of fountains set to music. I saw it for the first time last night, and I have to say it’s amazing!

A visit from relatives was the impetus for our first visit to the famous Montjuic dancing fountains. Glad we did. Set to music these were beyond amazing. Not to mention a nice hypnotic device to let your mind clear and refresh. I changed the music due to bad audio on the video, but you still get the picture. Enjoy.

Kids Dancing – Montjuic, Barcelona from ryan opaz on Vimeo.

Couple of kids enjoy a musicians music

short video made with a canon Ixus…fun evening.

Benidorm. A beach side village with towers competing for views of the sea. Old people wandering in wheelchairs and motorized seats along the beach. Whale basking by a pool that sits literally yards from the ocean. What am I missing? Why would you subject yourself voluntarily to this? It’s beyond me. But it seems to be big business! Might need to figure out how to capitalize on it. (best seen full size)