Taking a stroll

I've noticed that Kylie is walking more confidently. She walks around obstacles instead of tripping on them and she adjusts for height differences such as walking from the sidewalk to the grass.

She still holds her arms up but now they are in what I affectionately call the "monster pose".

Grrrr! Coming to getcha!

She's also really into stomping. It makes her laugh when I say, "Stomp, stomp, stomp" as she's stomping. Her favorite stomping place is this metal utility cover.

Don't you just LOVE to watch kids squat? Seriously, I'm so impressed with this. I could watch her do this all day.

Here's another shot. Her rear isn't touching the ground and her knees are holding her up. Amazing!

We have a neighborhood cat that comes running when he sees us walking. He knows he will get lots of loving pats from us. He even lets Kylie pet him (something our own cats won't let her do).

Here's Kylie playing with some walnut shells a squirrel left behind. I really like this shot.

No stroll would be complete until Kylie touches our neighbor's yard art raccoons. I don't care for concrete animals in my own yard but I can see why people get them. Kids LOVE them. Kylie has to pet the raccoons every day before she'll consider coming back into our house.

Oh, how I love my smiley Kylie.

Give me some love on these picture folks. I shot them in MANUAL mode. Big step for me.

Home and learning the language of light

I’m back from my photography weekend in CA. Here are some highlights of what I learned:

The focus of the class was to help scrapbooking photographers turn their camera dials from auto to manual. And I have to say that I’m convinced. It’s going to take some courage to switch but I’m ready to try.

I want to learn the language of light.

This is a phrase I heard this weekend that resonated with me. I can now see the “good” lighting in my past pictures that came out well and the “bad” lighting in the ones that didn’t. I learned that 2 hours after sunrise and 2 hours before sunset are the best times to shoot and how to position myself and my subject for the best shot.

Are you interested in some toddler tricks for a stationery shoot?

Place a sticker where you want them to stand and ask them to stomp on it. When they wander away, ask them to find their sticker.

For younger toddlers, have twice as many things for them to do as you think you might need (blocks, pinwheels, stuffed animals) and keep anticipating their boredom. Get them interested in that new activity before they show signs of boredom. One Mom talked about having a bag of toys her kids only saw when she was trying to get them still enough to take a great picture.

For older kids, get them talking about funny things such as “who has the stinkiest feet? Or “who has the loudest snore”. Create an arsenal of funny questions you can ask before the shoot.

And for shots with two kids or more, get them really close to one another right at the start. Getting them into one another’s personal space brings down lots of barriers.

Mostly I was exposed to different photographers portfolios. Some ideas I want to copy are:

Placing Kylie near a rough fence, or set her on a step with lots of texture and blow bubbles. The contrast between all the texture of the surroundings and the delicacy of the child’s skin and the bubbles was so beautiful.

Later I want to have a kitchen shoot, complete with chef’s hat and apron, and take pictures of Kylie stirring bowls, licking frosting off spoons and so forth.

Tea parties on the lawn, capes and plastic swords while playing near trees, I could go on and on. There were so many great ideas.

I really liked the conversations about evoking a feeling in your subject. I remember this well when Karen and I had our portraits taken during our pregnancy session. Our photographer would ask me to close my eyes and think about the baby growing in my belly or meeting her for the first time. One of the retreat teachers spoke about asking her son to close his eyes and to concentrate on feeling brave and strong like Batman (his favorite). You could SEE the difference in her photos of him after she did this. She talked about asking children to feel magical or beautiful. I could see how this would work in taking anyone’s picture. The trick for adults would be to get them talking about something they love. This gets them past the “how do you want me to stand, pose or smile” phase of a photoshoot.

As for specific sessions, I loved Jessica Sprauge's Adobe Raw class. I’m totally sold on shooting in raw format and tweaking shots in Adobe Raw. Plus it was just awesome to meet someone I admire so much.
Here’s something I shot this morning

And here it is tweaked in raw.


I learned a LOT from Candice Stringham’s class. She taught me how to take a light meter reading on your subject instead of the entire room. This is a great trick when you are working with back lighting.

Renee Pearson taught me a few Photoshop tricks. Brian Smith’s class was on fill flash but for me it was an excellent beginners course on camera terminology. And finally Nicole Hill and Skye Hardwick shared their beautiful portfolios and shared lots of tips on photographing children.

Of course, let us not forget that the other purpose of me taking the course was to simply get away. And I loved it. I had room service every night. I slept until 8:00 each morning. And I had uninterrupted time to scrapbook.





But in the end, I was thrilled to come home.

Gay and Away

Hello from San Jose, California! I'm attending the Creative Photograpy Retreat Course. I'll be here until Sunday.

It was hard to drive away from my Kylie. I teared up and choked up and was a blotchy mess. But by the time I got to the airport, I was fine. Fortune smiled on me by giving me an entire row of three seats all to myself on my flight. I played my favorite songs on my ipod (you know, I don't listen to enough music when I'm home. A long stretch of your favorite music is so awesome). My suitcase was first off the line and my shuttle service was prompt and easy. My room is spacious and just lovely.

Carefree is the word that keeps coming to me. I feel carefree.

No diapers, no fussing over Kylie's meals, no planning of toddler activities. No laundry, or dusting or cooking or cleaning. No one to take care of but myself. It's been a long time since I've had this kind of freedom. It's heady.

I miss my family but I'm excited about what I'm going to learn here. Thank you to my sweet wife Karen for encouraging this trip and making it possible.

Please wish me luck!

Oh, I made this page while watching Obama's acceptance speech.

Details

Wordless Wednesday

Just a few things

We had a great start to our weekend by receiving a surprise package of books from our Reading Angel.

Our Reading Angel has sent Kylie some books before. But we were completely astonished to open a package of TEN (10!!!!!!!) books for Kylie. Amazing! Reading Angel thank you so very much! You are awesome!

You saw some pictures of Kylie playing in the fountain on Saturday. That was such a funny experience. Our little girl got the shakes around the fountain. I don't know if she was cold (she didn't feel cold when I touched her), or if she was excited or if she was a little scared and overwhelmed by all the screaming, running children. But she would just stand there and shake. I really wish we had taken the video camera because all the shaking just cracked us up.

But It also sort of freaked me out so I wrapped her up and sat her down for a bit. This was the face I got. Totally unhappy about being taken away from the fountain.

And then she was squirming away from me and handing Momma Karen her shoes so that she could go back in.



It was such a good time. There are a few more fountain pictures here.

We went to our friend Sophia's third birthday party on Sunday. And then we scurried around getting the house ready for Karen's parent's visit. They are arriving today and staying for a week.

I've been meaning to blog about our recent grass sod adventure and my knitting but I guess that will have to wait.

For now, here are some pages!

Details


Details

Playing in the fountain

A few photos

Hey! I've added a new widget thingy on my sidebar. It's Shelfari--a way to share what books I'm reading and have read. Check it out!

Lately, Kylie has started walking around with her hands behind her back. I'm not sure why but it's cute.


A few more pictures.

Coming to get you and your camera Mommy!


I got you! I got you!


I didn't mean to rub the camera lens. Forgive me?


And a couple of scrapbook pages:

Details are here.

You knew this one was coming:

Details are here.

Have a great weekend!

Cat beds

Here is our sweet Phoebe kitty resting peacefully in her cat bed.

Until.....

Kylie tries to pet the cat. The cat runs away. Kylie grabs the cat bed, sits in it and tries to make meowing noises.


And where one cat bed is good, two are even better. Kylie uproots our other cat Chloe as well.


And the cats huddle near my feet, glaring and planning their revenge. On all of us.

Finger painting

First time finger painting



More pictures

Imperial

Imperial:
1. of, like, or pertaining to an empire.
2. a commanding quality, manner.
3. imperious, regal, majestic.

I just cracked up when I saw the above picture. Queen Kylie is looking down on her subjects- the Little People. And I just love her hair in that shot.

Happy 16 month birthday baby girl!

Photo/scrapbook Friday

I don't remember if I shared either one of these pictures with youin May. I put together these two pages yesterday.

Details are here.


Details are here.
Have a great weekend!

First Tantrum

We had our first, real, toddler tantrum yesterday.

I didn't even know what was going on until an hour after it was all over.

Here's the story.
I brought Kylie to her highchair for lunch. She started whining a bit as I lowered her. And when her bottom hit the seat, it turned into an all-out scream.

I thought she was in teething pain--after all, she is cutting 2 molars as well as pushing up four lateral incisors. So I'm running around offering teething rings, cold water, popsicles all of which she is refusing. I walk her around the house and sing to her. Then we go outside. Karen takes a turn and another turn. Kylie is still screaming her head off. This lasts around 30 minutes.

Finally, I take her upstairs and get her calmed down. And then it hits me....the highchair.

Kylie has shown signs of wanting out of her highchair. She's been pushing and sliding it away from the dining table. And then pulling out the regular chairs. A very clear signal indeed. I even told Karen a few days ago that we needed to get a booster.

But this tantrum hit me like a ton of bricks. I felt like my head had exploded. I thought her tantrum might look like her kicking her feet or acting mad. Nope, my girl just screams, cries, clings to me and is the most pitiful, needy thing.

Now I know what to look for. And I brushed up on what to do when she has one.

But we also ran out and bought her the booster. (And a table pad and some toddler plates and such).

And, if you want to look on the bright side, I said a WHOLE lot of prayers yesterday. God is probably smirking.

Here is our little munchkin, happily eating in her booster.


PS- I had a venti iced mocha yesterday. Sometimes you've just got to have that extra kick of sugar and caffeine...particularly when your kid has been kickin' your butt and makin' your head explode.

Toddler Karate

In toddler Karate, you must first prepare yourself and find your center.

Then stand and extend your awareness.

Practice your push-hand katas...

and your standing crane position.

This is the essence of ultimate toddler karate--the drunken toddler position.

Would you like to see it better? Here's a closer look.

All beware of toddlers practicing karate.
Namaste.