Fire and a flick.

I had a blast the other night,  I got to spend a great time swapping stories around a camp fire the other night.  After it started to rain (what in Seattle?) we headed in for “District 9″.  Then after the movie, we spend about another hour talking about the deeper meanings in the movie.  It helped having a missionary with us, who had distinct memories of the slums in Africa, the racial issues and much more..  The fire can be kind of a cruel light source (HARD light, with nasty fall off) but I do love my Nikon.  I saw an ad the other day “Nikon, shoot in the dark”.  Well not quite with mine, but close.  All hand head, at about 11 at night….  Names omitted to protect the innocent, er guilty.

“in the frame” Jon Stevens…

I am a lucky guy.  I’m lucky for a lot of reasons.  One of those reasons is my Dad.  We met up for an early Denny’s breakfast a week or so ago, and I was able to grab a few shots of him.  We meet up every few months and have breakfast together and get caught up.  It’s not like we live very far apart, but it’s nice to touch base with each other.  My dad’s great.  He’s the first to point out his flaws, quick to share heartfelt advice, lend a hand and loves to be part of the process of discovering.

He reminded me the other day of the time we spent at the Seattle Camera Club, when I didn’t have access to the school darkroom.  He’s invested his time and energy in what has interested me.  From photography, to rock climbing, to farming, and from fishing to sailing.

It’s not like he doesn’t have plenty of plates spinning.  Take a look at his site here and you can see that.  Better yet, stop by his farm stand this summer and drool over the certified organic produce that it will be overflowing with.  And don’t forget to say hi to Snickers, the farm dog.  And yes, at 5 am we are both a little groggy…

Valentines Day Special! (or Wedding Photography Special till Valentines day)….

I hinted at this a few weeks ago.  This is my first shot at some kind of “special” so we’ll see how it goes..  Here’s the deal!  From now, till Midnight on the 14^th if you book a package with me that includes an engagement session I will include a basic guest sign in album for free (images from the engagement session, a $150 value).  I am also running a discount on my wedding packages, but you’ll need to contact me to find out more details on that!

Please feel free to call me at 360-474-7427 or e-mail me.  Adam@photobby.com

I can hear you now… What about the brides you have already booked?  Never fear, they got the same great deal!  But I am sure they appreciate your concern.  I know, some of you might not be able to squeeze in a meeting in the next few weeks, as long as you have contacted me and have a consult scheduled, I will be able to extend this offer.

Hay! From Camano to Stanwood….

Well we ran out.  It was to be expected, our barn doesn’t hold enough hay to get us all the way through winter.  We chatted up a good friend and she put us in touch with a couple on Camano Island with a bunch of good local hay.  A few weeks ago we went and picked it up.  Our little gal had a blast climbing around on the trailer and again up in the loft.  It was almost pitch black by the time I finished loading up the hay in the barn, auto focus was a challenge, and it’s lit with one SB-600 off camera.  Fun stuff, and nice to have company in the loft!

White Seamless. Snohomish Co.

Captured this the other night and had to share it.  I wish my studio was this big.

Zumba Stanwood!! More energy than you can shake a stick at!

What a blast!  I had the chance to shoot the grand opening for Studio Z in Stanwood last night, and it wore me out!  I’m glad I was able to hide behind the camera, if I had to participate I don’t think I would have been able to walk the next day!  It was obvious that these ladies love running these classes, and they really pulled all the people in.  I could feel the energy pouring out of the place from the parking lot, and they didn’t let up one bit!  I’ll point you to their site for all the details it’s here: http://www.studiozstanwood.com/.  I think half the fun of shooting this was the energy level.  It is always so much fun to take pictures when people are having a good time, there is lots of energy and emotion.  Helping out was Chris with Your Song DJ, he MC’d and ran the sound for the night, fun to see him out of his tux!

A side note; a lot of these photos are a little blurry, that’s on purpose.  Leme splain it to you…  Ever seen the dance photos that look more like people frozen in weird positions?  Yea we all have, I am not a big fan, and as this (just like the dancing at a wedding) is mostly about motion, I was “dragging the shutter” and in some of them mixing flash to try to push a little more detail into the image.  Some blur, but with some definition.  Flash with a fast shutter would have frozen them, looking like Mr. Roboto with dead batteries.  Some times fast flash & shutter looks great, in fact if you look at the post “White Seamless” (going live tomorrow night) you will see my little gal’s hair flying up, frozen with no blur.  Oh she was moving let me tell you!  But the flash froze her, no flash and she would have been a pink blob on the white..

But back to the photos- lots of people and lots of fun!!

Here are the instructors!

Now…  I’ve saved my two favorite images for last.  They are out of a series of like 7, but these two were my favorites.  Candie was wild, she would get this intense look on her face, and move around faster than I think I ever could, it got the class wound up!!  Nothing like 200+ screaming people working out to some great beats!

Back to the holidays…

Backing up the stuff from ought nine and got held up on a few frames I wanted to share…

“In The Frame” : Greg Sicotte

Greg.

I met Greg just 3 short years ago, when we moved up to Stanwood.  Fact is, he’s probably the person on my “in the frame” list who I have known for the shortest time and met most recently.  But we’ve crammed a lot into the three years.  We have some of those kooky connections that make meeting new people fun.  He went to the high school my father in law was the Vice Principal at, their oldest daughter is very close in age to ours.  He is also a bit of an adrenaline junkie.  You do get to learn a lot about someone by meeting with them once a week, every week, for three years.  I look forward to our weekly coffee and head clearing…

Greg is a true entrepreneur.  He started, built, and sold a tremendously successful service company, as his interest and passion has shifted he invested his time in web development, understanding not not just the how but more the why.  He is someone who loves to learn, to question and to listen.  A meticulous attention to detail, a desire to learn about the industry that he is serving; all give him the knowledge, skill and drive to exceed his clients expectations.  He’s also helped me focus more on my passions.  My family, faith and priorities..  He is someone I wish I had met years ago.

So without further ado- here he is…

If you want to learn a little more about him, or see some of what he’s done he was kind enough to send me some links…  And when I can, he’s going to be giving my whole web presence a once over…

http://linkediq.com/

http://linkediq.com/web-design-portfolio/allstaragents-corporation/

http://gregsicotte.com/about/my-experience/

“In The Frame” coming tonight to Stanwood Wa.

So here’s the premise, it’s kind of a long thread but there is an end to it… I’ve been thinking about a “personal project” for a long time (my wife likes to say, everything I do is a personal project ), and the list of possibilities is long. Some of them I have looped back to several times, but they have never really stuck. Then a few weeks ago, after listening to an interview of David duChemin, author of “Within the Frame” it hit me. David (he’s not the only one) is a big proponent of shooting what you love. If you like cats, shoot cats, cars, then cars… Because you connect to that subject on an emotional level, and therefore probably shoot better photos of it/them. I love photographing people, why, because of the emotional connection I have with them. I love making photos that will resonate with people who really know the subject in the photo. And so I thought, why not shoot some of the people who I have connected with, in my past, and now? It’s not something that will be wrapped in a week, or a month. For crying out loud one of the “must shoots” lives in New York, one I haven’t seen since my wedding, and one is no longer with us.

So stay tuned, look for the “In The Frame” post title, and get ready to meet some people who I hold near and dear. Some things to keep in mind, I am posting these in no particular order, outside that I have been able to connect with them and get a few minutes to take some photos. Yes my wife would probably have been first, but it’s going to take a little more sweet talking to get her to do it willingly she’s the last person in the world I would try to arm twist into something, cause that never goes well. And that’s the last thing, accessibility to the people is probably going to drive the order more than anything else. With two exceptions, all the photos I am doing for this will be fresh. Not re-treads. Mostly.

So tune in tonight for “ITF” #1. One other item of note, check back on Feb 1st for a Wedding Special that will run till the 14th.

“In the frame”, weddings, and babies

Sorry to leave all two of you hanging here for a bit.  Not much original content lately eh?  Never fear.  After the hurried pace of the holidays, things slowed down a bit for us.  For various reasons we are not going to make it to any of the Bridal Events this spring (next year?) but would love to hear how they go…  Instead I’ve been working on a couple of personal projects.  The first is going to be called “in the frame” and now that I have several of the shoots “in the can” I feel comfortable doing a little pre-view.

The premise is simple.   Meet someone for coffee and take a few informal photos.  The “in the frame” bit?  Well my life is “framed” by the people who I interact with.  Some of them have had a very deep or long lasting impact on my, shaped who I am or fed my odd sense of humor.  So those are the folks you’ll see.  Who exactly?  Well you’ll just have to tune back in from time to time to find out.

Finally the weddings!  I’ll be firing up a special here in the next few days, and again, tune in for more info!!

Till then- have a wonderful weekend!

-Adam

Don’t believe what you see.

This is unreal.  I can’t believe what is possible now….

The only notable thing he didn’t render in CGI was the sky and photographer.

This truly is best viewed on the largest highest resolution monitor you can get your hands on…

DSLR video can only get better.

Not that Ford makes bad cars.  But (until recently) Chevy kept them honest.  And vice-versa.  I posted a while ago that I passed on the D90 for a D300, the thing that held me back was the video.  I’m glad I waited.  Nikon announced a competition a while ago, any brand of HD-DSLR or video camera, shot film of your life.  Winner?  $100K.  All yours.  Have fun!

Today on Vincent Laforet’s blog, he announced the Cannon answer to Nikon.  I haven’t read all the deets yet, but I think this hits at something bigger.  The merging of video and still photography.  From what I hear, at the moment, if you don’t fully understand exposure, DOF and such, the video capability of the current DSLR’s leave something to be desired in the way of “average Joe” usability.  It ain’t a handy-cam.  But for the artsy fartsy type, it rocks and will get better.  I look forward to where this will go.  I can only imagine in a few years when my D300 croaks, I’ll be getting into a DSLR that captures video.

Vincent is an incredible artist…  Here’s his vid for Cannon.

The Story Beyond The Still: The Cabbie from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.

Long term?  The video a DSLR can shoot will only get better.  Safe bet?  You bet!  And it’s always fun to watch two corporate giants try to out do each other!

“What’s that spot on the wall?”

Or that’s what I said the first time I noticed a dust spot on my sensor. I am the first to admit I am not a pixel peeper (someone who looks the the pixel level detail in a digital photo), although I can get caught up in it. I tend to worry more about exposure then anything else, it’s the hardest to fix in post production. Color balance is not something that typically occurs to me as I am shooting because it’s so easy to fix in post (unless you are blending flash or different light sources then it gets wonky) and because I grew up shooting Tri-X. Black and white film doesn’t really care what temperature the light is…

I first spotted the dust spot when I was reviewing the photos on my computer. It looked like a spot on my computer screen, but cleaning that didn’t help (ha ha got ya!). I though it might be a spot on the wall, but when I compared two or three frames of the same wall, the spot moved. That can’t be good. What brings this all up? An v-mail from a friend over the holiday. Here’s my response…. For what it’s worth.

” I just got your voice mail this morning. I am guessing you thought of me because I have shot for so long with an older DSLR. As far as my sensors go, I have never done anything but clean them off with a blower (not a blower brush). One of the air only ones (without the brush) and big so it pushes a lot of air. I have heard to not use the canned air, as it’s to strong, and can have chemicals that can damage things…
Scott Borne uses the lens pens, after cleaning off the graphite, to clean his sensors, but says himself that he’s a bit of a rogue to use it. I had my D50 cleaned at Camera Techs about a year and a half ago,and they did a fairly good job. I have one smudge on my sensor that they were able to minimize but not completely remove, but it was only like $25 and they did it while I waited. If it’s your backup body, you could try it yourself, or you could convert it to an Infrared camera! That’d be wicked cool! LifePixel.com has kits and I think you can send it to them to have it done…”

Let me know if you have had any experience with that last one.  I used to think it was kind of gimmicky, but really like what it does to sky’s and skin tones.

The Fierce Protector.

Don’t let his big brown eyes fool you.  This guy is a killer.  Or could be.  Sampson’s been with us for a few years, coming to live with us when we got our first goats.  He is the gentlest, kindest, most unassuming 4 legged critter on our little farm.  He lets kids pet him, and walk under him.  He’ll eat treats out of your hand and perks his ears up when he sees someone new.  But behind that funky under bite is a grass clipping spitting, coyote killing machine.  Now, to our knowledge no canines have been killed or harmed on our property, but I haven’t seen a coyote on our land since he showed up.  It’s nice.

He gets a little nervous when our dogs are out running, but with a good bit of hot tape and field fencing between them, he seems to feel comfortable enough.  Except when the Vet shows up, Sampson is not a fan of the vet.  So if you want to say “hi” to Sam (as we call him) don’t wear the Clinique Lab coat.  If you do, you are likely to go home smelling like old rotting grass clippings.  Oh, and don’t go swinging a hypodermic needle around either.  Even if your chasing the goats to try to update their CDT…  He’ll try to kick, trample, or spit you to death.

Who said owning a farm is boring.

Sugar, time, sugar, time, little orage peels, more time and… sugar.

Basically that’s it.  For Candied Orange peels.  Come Christmas time, I get into the kitchen for candy making.  My bride takes care of all the baking (I tried this year, to bake come cookies, and again, we know why it’s her job).  She calls me the “candy man” though.  I get to stir hot pots of boiling sugar water, to make (primarily) Candied Orange Peels and Eastern Butter Crunch.  Just typing the names gives me the sugar jitters.  And making them pushes me further into full blown diabetes.  The EBC is kind of a quick, looooong thing, not so conducive to shooting.  The Candied Orange Peels are however.  So please pardon my poor lighting on these quick grab shots, half the fun was shooting all of this with available light (it still blows my mind shooting at iso 2000 and getting an image as clean as these are).

Organized..

I had to leave before it was done.  Ooh that makes me nervous.  I got a call from the Boss though and all is good.  The files have transferred and outside the last few family snaps between now and the end of 09′ the archive drive is all ready to be sent to the Island for cold storage.  It seems like the end of the year is a good time to review/upgrade or (like me) follow through on the backup strategy that makes the most sense for you.  (and it needs to make sense to you, or you likely won’t do it)

All you have to do is type Digital Photo Backup into Google and you get some 168 MILLION results.  Everybody has a way to backup your photos, or ideas of how to.  There are lots of ways to backup your photos.  And it’s important.  To back up.  Your photos.  Sorry.  I have a friend who had her hard drive die on her Mac this summer.  Thankfully, she had a backup and only lost the work (not the images/files) that she had done since her last shoot.  A real heart-breaker but thankfully fully recoverable (just lots of time re-doing some photoshop magic).  It was her little incident that got me thinking…

Most people (until last night I would fall into this category too) save their photos on their computer’s hard drive.  They might load some up to a local printer (Costco), or to Flickr, but in a nutshell that’s it.  Until my hard drive filled up that’s what I did too.  When it was full I got an external 500 gig hard drive and kept on going….  Any final image for clients were loaded onto my web site, and I can download them (slowly one at a time…) if I had some kind of local file loss, but would only have the JPG’s not the RAW files that are so precious…

How did I rectify my little potential train wreck?  First I got all the stuff organized on the external drive (there was just enough room).  Then I bought a new internal 1.5TG drive, and installed it.  Then I copied all the files from the external drive to the new internal drive.  So now I have two copies of everything.  One copy on my internal drive, the other copy on the external drive.  There is just enough room on the external drive to fit the rest of ‘09 on the current external drive.  On New Years eve, it will get on the bus to the island.  Where it will live in safe obscurity with everything I’ve shot up till the end of the decade.  And this leaves me with the working copies on my local hard drive, so I don’t have to get my hands on the external drive unless I have some kind of equipment failure (insert screaming, sobbing, and hair pulling).  So if I want to work on another family photo book, I can do so with no worries.

As I move forward I will continue to add new files to my new internal drive, at the end of each month (or contract job) I will copy them to the new external hard drive (didn’t tell you about that one did I?) that will live on the Island, unless I am actively backing up…  This might be a little simpler if I had DSL or what not, as I could utilize an on-line service for my archiving, but frankly I like the ability to control my costs, and am not a fan of monthly charges…

Besides my time what did this all cost me?  About $300.  Could I have spent more?  Oh yes, and how.  But.  I didn’t need to, and if I didn’t see a big ol wave of RAW files headed my way I would not have gone with the larger internal or external drives.  That might have saved me $80.  My peace of mind now?  Priceless.

Merry Christmas!

Well Merry Christmas to you and yours!  I’m having a wonderful day with my family and in the spirit of the season felt like sharing some of my favorite sites with you.  Some of these I hit for inspiration, for direction or because they are fun.  Motor on through, add a few as favorites and then get back to celebrating this special season with those closest to you.

In no particular order….

http://www.pixelatedimage.com/blog/

David is awesome.  His is the kind of gig I would like if it didn’t take him away from home so much.  I’ve met him and he is the real deal.

http://www.strobist.blogspot.com/

Do you want to learn about flash photography?  Go here.  And no where else.  It’s all here.  It is all about the light.

http://www.chromasia.com/iblog/

Another David (mr. strobist is also a David).  His photography is wonderful, with some really nice B&W.  He also sells some tutorials…

http://www.jasminestarblog.com/

Wedding photographer in the OC.  I like her style, and approachability.  She’s also a relative newbie, only in the biz for about 4 years….  Her FAQ’s are very nice.

http://www.digitalprotalk.blogspot.com/

Another David, and a wedding photographer who is world known.  He’s on here because of all the time he spends letting the world see how he does business.  I real boon for folks who want to get into the industry.  His tutorials are free and he has his arms around light they way only a film shooter can.

http://worldfoto.blogspot.com/

Local guy.  This would be one of those, start at the beginning of his trip and read through the story with him.  His writing is very funny and his photos are great.

http://www.scottkelby.com/blog/

Same link as I posted the other day.  His guest blogs are wonderful ways to see some other photographers and he has links to lots of resources…

http://www.thebestcamera.com/

This makes me wish I had an iPhone.  Best rated, most highly acclaimed iPhone photo app by every pro photographer.

http://www.nikonians.org/index.php

If you shoot Cannon I am sorry.  Not that I have anything against Cannon.  I just happen to have a Nikon and boy are there LOTS of web resources for Nikon shooters.  And lighting, and on and on …..

http://photofocus.com/

Tips, and links, also a podcast that’s entertaining.

http://dpreview.com/

Wana know all the nasty little details on a particular camera?  This is THE site.  It has a really nice side by side comparison tool, as well as some pixel  peeping reviews that almost require a degree in engineering to understand.  It’s also one of the first sites to break industry news, and get pre-production equipment.

http://digital-photography-school.com/

Haven’t poked around here much, but what I’ve seen is great!  They tap the photo-genius brain trust collective for lots of tutorials and such.

http://1x.com/v2/#/

The last.  First a word of caution, this is a really artsy site.  Some of the models are ‘gasp’ nude.  It’s art, totaly not my thing, but it’s art (hello Michelangelo “David”???) you can set the default to block nude content, oh thank you so much!  HOWEVER- this site has some of the very best photographers in the world.  Many are not household names, nor will they ever be, because they are artists.  I especially love the Architecture, Landscape, Humor and Portrait sections.  If I want to see something that’s not well lit, the exposure is not “technical” this is the place to see that done.  And done well.  The images on the site are judged by members.  Only about 40% of the images submitted get posted.  There is lots of black and white, with lots of stuff super-unsaturated.

I’ve finally figured something out…

About myself.  I like new things.  New places.  New people.  That’s what I like to shoot.  It makes sense and I am guessing that my two regular readers (Hi Mom & Dad!) are already saying, well, “yes, we know that”.  I think that’s why I like photographing people so much.  Especially my kids.  They are always new.  They are growing and changing, the youngest was just learning to spin around on the floor the other day and now she is crawling, or will be by the time I’m home today.  That’ll be a fun new thing to shoot.  And shortly after that, she’ll be walking, and I’ll be spending less time laying on the ground with my camera.  Our older daughter is learning new stuff all the time.  Riding a bike, catching fish, her new attitude…  You get the idea.

I think that’s why I love events so much.  A good party, or ceremony.  It’s always different, and new, and I love being there for it.  I was never much of an attention grabber growing up.  In drama, I would rather be a stage hand than a supporting much less leading actor.  I love standing out of the way and catching a ‘moment’, and then looking for the next.

So here’s a moment I caught at an appreciation dinner for the pastors at our church….

Photo Tips.

Here’s an easy one.  Read.  There’s lots out there on the ol’ innernet.  However, any monkey with a keyboard can say just about whatever they want and “publish”.  Like me.  So when I really want solid advice/techniques, I look for the printed word.  I finally “followed the crowd” over to Scott Kelby’s blog and it didn’t take me long to look for a used (I’m cheep er frugal) copy of his first book “Digital Photography“, now he has two more, which I have not read but I am sure they are top notch.  The book didn’t really affect the way I shoot, but it’s full of little tips and tricks (Oh that’s how they shoot fireworks!!) so It was worth the evening I spent with it.  Helpful for many would probably be the section in the back, where he talks about specific settings to achieve specific results.  It would be a great place for folks who want to step off the edge into manual or semi manual exposure to start.  He has another little thing called Kelby Training, it’s an on line video learning library.  He has some folks “teaching” are just incredible, real top notch, you’ve seen their photos, even if you don’t know it, Pros.  The content is always growing and although I don’t use photoshop enough to pay for a membership (I have kind of a big anti-photoshoping-something-to-death thing).  So I’ve stayed away.   They do have some stuff on lighting, I keep thinking I should look in that….

Know your gear.

I was listening to my current favorite podcast of all time yesterday.  “The Image Doctors” by the Nikonian group.  The guys spend more on camera gear in a year that I could imagine.  They basically have everything, but it typically doesn’t get me into full blown NAS (Nikon Acquisition Syndrome).  Thank goodness.  They have great tips and such, as well as guests from time to time.  They were interviewing Thom Hogan who travels a lot.  The tidbit I got out of this that I think warrants bringing up at this time of year is not getting new gear just before a big trip.

Producing quality images, take familiarity.  The camera needs to be as much second nature as a bicycle.  Most people opening imaging equipment this holiday season will get that idea on Christmas morning.  They will pull the new camera out of it’s box and not expect to be Jay Maisel.  As long as they shoot it a bunch before the trip this summer that the will want to make some great images on.

And with that last bit, I plan on “gasp” pre-posting some content for the holidays.  Hopefully aimed at folks who are wanting simple pointers, get started stuff that they can apply with their shiny new precious.  Most of it will point you elsewhere.  Although I’ve been told I should teach, I’m not.  At least yet.  I do however (sorry honey) spend lots of time scrounging the web for inspiration/technique/skills.  And I’m going to open my FireFox favorites and pick some gems.

Stay Tuned!

Good food is hard to find….

I had the pleasure of attending a Christmas Party the other day with some incredible food.  And I know good food.  I am not some kind of epicurean snob.  When asked about my preference for food my canned response is “if it’s not moving, I’ll eat it”.  That’s not to say I don’t enjoy good food.  I typically “bulk up” around the holidays.  I like to blame three women in particular.  My wife, my mother and my mother in law.  When it comes to home cooking, they are the Trinity, the tri-fecta of food.  They are trying to kill me with love (and pumpkin pie).  They are not all that shabby with the more exotic or fancy pants stuff either.  From perfect Crem Brule to perfectly marinated and cooked steak.  Check out the recent Thanksgiving post…

So all of this to say that the food that was served up at this Christmas Party was incredible.  I have had the dis-pleasure of some very bad catered buffet food, and this food was so good, that it seems rude to mention it in the same sentence.  From the crab dip to the steak skewers and the desert!  I just wish these folks did this full time!  I would love to run into them at more events!  Here’s a shot of one of the deserts, I can still taste it….

Ooh HD video with my DSLR!!!

Well kind of. I was torn a few months ago with the imminent birth of our second kiddo. I desperately wanted to get a newer video camera, but also wanted to upgrade my DSLR. The D90 seemed like a good call, the body was about the price of the HD camcorder… and it shot HD video! Or at least HD resolution. Sort of. I ended up deciding to get the dedicated camcorder (Canon HF10).  I love it and it works really well for what I want to use it for.  I ended up picking up a D300, not the D90 but that’s a discussion for a different day.

So where am I going with this?  There was a post the other day over at ProLost (video site) about shooting video with a DSLR.  While some truly great photographers have managed some incredible stuff with some of the video DSLR’s there is a bit of a hole in their armor, and although workable is one of those pixel peeping issues that warrants a link (IMHO).  So here’s the link, http://prolost.com/blog/2009/12/3/you-didnt-believe-me.html.  Interesting and although I don’t think I’ll ever shoot a zebra standing on it’s head in the savanna, it’s worth understanding how the gear we use affects the final product.

Oh and as a side note, I got the HF 10 just after the HF 20 came out, (which is my norm, to buy just behind the tech curve) so I got a “$1,200″ camcorder for ~$600 as the HF 20 was at the time listed for $1,200.  And what do I shoot with my camcorder?  All the normal boring dad stuff.  And it works great.  Even lets me adjust the f stop for shallow depth of field shooting (sort of).

More than one at a time…

Way back in the mists of time. When we didn’t have kids and we thought we were busy, my wife worked as a teacher at a private school on the East side. She and the PE teacher there hit it off (Their sense of humor and justice in a grade school meshed perfectly). At the time none of us had kids, but wanted them. We were finally blessed with a little gem of our own they pursued a different vein.

I have an unspeakable amount of respect and awe for people who take others into their homes. Be it, family’s in need, foster children or full blown adoption. It is something my wife and I have talked about again and again. We might some day, but it would need to be a really obvious open door. Her friend and husband had no such qualms.

They adopted two girls from Haiti, going through an unbelievably difficult story and practically living in Haiti during the final months of the process (do I really remember that right?).  Not put off one bit, they have since adopted an older girl and have (since we saw them last) started the process of adopting three boys.  We would worry about them but I get the feeling that it is them who should be worrying about us and our two little whirlwinds.  Shortly after adopting the first two (and I think when they were adopting the third) they moved to Spain.  Yep, you read it right.  And they loved it.  Blogged about it here.

We were able to meet up with them at the Cheesecake Factory and let our kids do the whole “hair, teeth and eyeballs” think outside after we finished.  I grabbed a few quick shots and got the OK to post them.  Also, you should hit their new Blog home on WordPress (yea!) it’s Here.

New favorite photo blog.

I have a long list of blogs I hit on a semi-daily basis.  Here’s a new one I found last week and really like.  His photos are super clean, with some really nice lines.  Interesting difference between his commercial and personal work.  I like the personal stuff better.  Oh, and I found him through Scott Kelby’s blog.  It’s another good one.  So here’s the link.  Love the site name http://www.ivegotfriends.com/ So far looks totally G rated too.  Nice.

Pay it forward….

This is important, but it’s short.  And that’s cause I don’t have any photos.  And I’m ticked about that.  Darn cold weather.  Short story, our pipes froze on Friday night.  I was supposed to go and shoot an event for a friend, Lisa Miller at Pay it Forward Charities.  They were gathering cans at the Husky game for her “Cans for Chemo” program.  Without knowing the final outcome of the frozen pipes I had to pull the plug on the trip.  Arg!!  I am hoping I can connect with her later this year (or early next) and make it all right.  Till then, take a look at what she’s doing, and help if you can (get it? can?  ha ha).