One Camera. One Lens. One Photo a Day.

I faced a bit of an editing dilemma today.

This morning, as I took Kate to school, she was carrying her pink umbrella and I photographed her as she was chasing me to the car, much like she did in a recent blog post.

Both are vertical photographs, with out of focus elements of our alley visible in much of the frame,  though this one was a little bit different.  There was a bit more energy and excitement in this one and she held the umbrella off to the side.  Consider it “Kate With Umbrella in Alley, II”

Yesterday as we held the fort as California was besieged by rain, I looked through the window and began to play with the lights, shape and forms of the drops on the window with the camera.  I knew though yesterday the day would belong to The Boy being fed, but I was looking and scouting and thinking ahead.

Not that that type of photo is anything new, but shooting it with a 50 imposed some limits in terms of how close I could get to the drops.  In the past if I were doing that photograph of the drop details for a newspaper, I might use a macro lens to get even closer, and more graphic with the image.  But for this blog there are some limitations.

But that’s okay.  What that limitation forces me to do is to look for the shapes in the background and lines to help make the photograph interesting with hints of context (like the sweep of the tree in the background).  That is one of the things that makes the 50mm such a powerful lens (on a full frame camera).  With a large aperture it can almost throw the background out of focus (and also depending on how close you are to the subject), but it can often gives hints of detail.  If you were to use a telephoto like an 85mm lens, that background information would be gone, merely converted to highlights and shapes, but less of a sense of what might be making up that shape.

So because of the recent umbrella photograph on the blog, I opted today to post my graphic image of the rain highlighted on the patio door (made today ).

Today’s photo was given to me by my “photo editor” last night.

Getting back late from my trip to South Dakota, my wife Nicki informed me:  “Sparky is eating solids for the first time tomorrow morning.  That will be your Photo of the Day.”

Yes dear.

But she was right and I was glad I had the heads-up.

So just after 8 this morning, the boy got his first taste of food that was neither breast milk or formula.  And I don’t think he much cared for it.  And then this evening when Nicki tried to feed him the rice, he wasn’t too thrilled about that one either.  We finished his dinner this evening with formula and that did satisfy him.

We’re hoping that eating more solid foods (well, relatively solid, for a newborn) will help him sleep better and through the night.  He’s still fighting sleep and periodically will wake up crying for food, attention or perhaps both.

We sure know about that.

With the oldest, we once went through a looonnnnggggg night of “cry it out” sleep training.  Nine hours!  (“9 hours????”, said like Ferris Bueller’s mother.  Yes, 9 hours).  And I had a wedding the next day.

Of course she was a bit older when this episode happened (about 18 months and she was having nightmares that were waking her up) and had slept pretty much through the night as a newborn so it was startling when Sparky did not.  But it just drove home the point that each child is different, and boys are definitely different than little girls.  They tend to eat more, we’re told, and it’s proven to be true.

Now, hopefully he’ll begin to eat more of his rice porridge.  With the way he has grown in his four months, I am quite certain he’ll be woofing it down in no time.

Somewhere in the skies between Omaha and Phoenix…

I’m sitting in a half full (or would it be half empty) flight back from my trip documenting the Ellis family in South Dakota.

It was an amazing trip on many levels.  The photographs were fantastic because they were the kind of images that I absolutely love to capture.

Real moments of people living their lives.

The other thing that was great was hanging out with Cory Ann and her family.  CA is a fantastic photographer who operates a successful wedding and portrait business in Brookings.

She is also one of the most organized people I have ever met and has willingly shared her organizational secrets which I plan on implementing when I am at home.  Funny, I can organize the space in the frame of my camera  but when it comes to organizing the images on my many many hard drives, well, let’s just say it’s not what I would want.

Cory Ann is not only supremely organized she’s supremely talented as a photographer and is really coming into her own with not only her wedding coverage — which is absolutely stellar — but also her work as a photographer doing intimate portraits of women.

She is one of the best I’ve ever seen in this genre and the work has evolved majorly over the course of the year.  I can only imagine how they’ll be in the next couple of years.

It was also a pleasure meeting her husband Andy who teaches at South Dakota State Univ, also in Brookings.   Not only did I get to see a side of his life that is supremely important to him (his hunting), I got to also see the educator side of Andy yesterday.  He oversees the day-to-day operation of the Anatomy lab and yesterday he was getting his students for this semester organized of their lab which will be the examination of a human cadaver.  I was able to see that, but not photograph it for privacy reasons but felt like I had stepped into a scene from NCIS or CSI.

I got to also photograph and get to know their boys:  Kaleb (a 7th grader) and Ayden (a first grader).  Cory Ann worked hard to get permission for me to document them in school so I could continue this documentary project on the family.  That work paid off.  Even though I was only there for a couple of hours, I did get glimpses into their life in school.   It’s a privilege to be granted that access, and the camera makes it possible.

What just absolutely amazed me was what happened before school for Ayden.   With temperatures below freezing (probably around 20º or so) the kids were undaunted as they swung on the swings, slid down the slide, literally jumped onto the playground apparatus that had iced over.  Ayden sat atop the jungle jim bars and just looked perfectly content even thought the weather — to me — was bone chilling.  I couldn’t help but think about Kate playing on a very similar type of jungle jim about 10 days ago.  Kate was wearing her flip flops, short sleeve t-shirt and the temperature was about 70.  The kids in SD seemed to be just as content even bundled up with layers of hats, scarves, heavy coats, gloves and boots as Kate and her buddies were with crocks and t-shirts.  Wherever they are, they just adapt.

Ayden is a sprite of a kid who just loves to play outside, use a knife to carve wood figures, shoot bow and arrow — pretty much everything his Dad loves to do as well.  He’s impish, playful and quick to smile (and show off those gaps from the missing baby teeth!).

He looks up to Kaleb (his older half brother) and I think Kaleb kind of likes that, though he may not easily admit it.

Kaleb was a bit shy around me, though it’s probably the norm for that age.  He is a good athlete and I was able to photograph him with his family on the skates (and he’s a demon skating backwards), and also practicing basketball (too bad his game on Monday was cancelled due to the foggy road conditions), and today in gym playing Dodgeball.

Thanks to Cory Ann and Andy for commissioning me to document the family — it’s the start of creating a totally new type of portrait session for my clients.  That is a real day in the life type of assignment where there’s no posing of photographs, just honest to goodness documentary photography that reveals a side of the family that no mere portrait can represent.

This is much truer to my ultimate photographic vision.  It’s about spending time with people, photographing the simple things in their lives like mealtime, recreation, or simply photographing them just hanging out and rolling around on the floor playing with a huge Great Dane in pjs.

And this could not have worked out more perfectly.

Ayden licks the snow from a snow bank on the way to school this morning.

Here in South Dakota the  weather was perfect for the formation of hoar frost on the trees.

The air was heavy with moisture and slightly foggy and the sun trying to break through created an eerie glow.

This image was made on the campus of South Dakota State University this morning before Cory Ann took her boys to play at the Boys and Girls Club.  The kids had a day off because of the Martin Luther King holiday so it was good to get them doing some activity.

Tomorrow should be a good one — I’ll be photographing the boys in their classes at school.  And then it’ll be back to California. It’s been a great trip and am very grateful to the Ellis family for having me here to document their life.  And can’t wait to see the book that I’ll create from this extended portrait session.

Andy got his deer today.

This afternoon, just before the sunset and before the cold really set in, Andy happened to notice a deer rustling in the cornfield. We were actually walking in to a tree stand a quarter mile further away for another try for a deer  using bow and arrow).

We had walked in no more than 50 yards from the truck when he saw the deer. Moments before he commented that he better get an arrow ready  in case we happened to spot one before we got to the stand. Sure enough, we did.

Hiding in the corn field about 15 yards from us was the deer.  Andy raised his compound bow, lined up the site (and there was just a tiny target to shoot through because of the corn), and was able to get the deer in the neck with the first arrow. The second arrow hit the chest.

This was the fourth deer that he had ever killed with a bow and he said it was the easiest one ever, and the closest.

Andy gutted the deer in the field, then took it home to hang before he’ll prepare it.  He took out the heart, too and set it aside for eating.  Upon arriving home he seasoned it and boiled it for three hours.

Just as I started to edit the images from today, he placed the heart meat down on a plate on the counter in front of me and his sons.

Prepared perfectly the meat was rich and tasty and amazingly tender. I was a bit reluctant to try it having never had it before. It was probably one of the most surprising things I have ever eaten.

I knew there would be a penalty for violating the prime directive for this blog.

That being, ALWAYS carry a camera.

I  don’t know what I was thinking.  Before getting onto the plane, I mounted the 50mm on the 5dm2, changed out film in the Leica (also with the 50).  I was ready.

But I wasn’t really.

I put the bag in the overhead and I grabbed the window seat (good thinking).  But I didn’t grab the camera and take it OUT of the bag and leave it in my seat.

Was I kicking myself on takeoff.

The minute we lined up on the runway to take off, the stormy horizon created an interesting look from the window.  It only got better as we headed west quietly over the Newport Coast.

The sky had an eerie glow and the sun was blocked partially by a ring of blue/black clouds on the horizon.  Cargo ships waiting to dock in the port of LA or San Pedro (not sure which) caught the glow of a goldenrod sunrise — somehow the sun eeked through an open hole in the clouds and hit them at the right angle.

I’m still kicking myself as we proceed higher and higher.  Damn. I’m locked in my seat and I don’t even have my iPhone turned on so at least I could make a photo — even a godawful one — to at least trigger a memory of what I am in the midst of seeing.

“Ping.” “We’re now at 10,000 feet and you can use your portable devices…” came the voice of the lead flight attendant over the loudspeaker.

That jolted me into remembering that I could actually keep my iPhone on though in the airplane mode).  I quickly reach between my legs, rip open the zip and run through my brain how to turn it on again.  Is it hold the top botton for five seconds or the bottom for five?  I forget.  Finally I figure it out.

As the phone is waiting to load, I keep an eye on the sky.  It’s changing and changing fast as the plane has made the turn to the northeast, heading up to Las Vegas.

The clouds which were at first on the horizon for me are now becoming a part of the immediate scenery.

And just as the phone has reset, I’ve turned it to airplane mode, I look out the window, ready to pounce on what little of a photograph might be left.

And it’s gone. I’m in a white out.  Even the early morning sun in the upper third of the frame, which looks great to the naked eye (man, it would’ve worked on neopan), but through the POS lens of the iPhone there’s just a bright circle surrounded by a blue ring and virtually no detail in any of the cloud layer that encases the plane.

Shit. That sucks. But damn, what a lesson to learn.

Twenty feet outside the jetway, I stop. Drop the bags and pull out the camera with the 50.

That is not going to happen again.

I didn’t miss the sunset though.  This image was made on a country road in far northern Iowa, just before the sun dropped.  And it was cold.

Today was the day of The Minnie.

This morning Kate pulled out a long time favorite — Minnie Mouse — a costume handmade by Granny Moira.

We haven’t seen Min around here for a while.  And today  it was worn with all the flourishes — the Gloves (she calls them Glubbs), the ears and even the tail.

Since the Belle dress and Cinderella dress have debuted on the shores of America last summer, Minnie hasn’t made it out of the closet.  It was a surprise to see it (I was actually wondering just the other night if she had outgrown that costume both physically and emotionally), it made her seem like even more of the little girl of  a year ago who was only about Minnie Mouse.

But it didn’t last long.

Before heading out, she was back in jeans and a t-shirt and the four year old reemerged.

Even before today started, I had a pretty good idea what would be today’s photo.

Both the kids had their check ups with Doctor Ball — our pediatrician from Southern OC Pediatrics — Kate her fourth year; Sparky, his fourth month.

Despite his naggin little cold (it seems like he’s had one constantly since week five — I guess it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise with a sibling in pre school), Sparky is doing well, thriving and growing like a weed.  He’s up to the 80% percentile.

We got a kick as Dr. Ball nearly fell out of his chair when he examined the boy’s mouth … and noticed two teeth!  Time to start brushing those little things.  It just seems so much faster than it was with Kate.

Life moves just so much faster when there’s an active older sibling in the mix.

Here Dr. Ball examines Sparky’s chest and, thankfully, all checked out.

Contrary to a once popular song, it does rain in Southern California.  And lately, not really enough.

But today it did and we’ll take whatever we can get.  Plus I had a sense it would give me a photograph — whether it was a cool detail of a rain soaked leaf — or a little ballerina avoiding the rain.  (You would’ve laughed at my poor man’s rain cover today…just a hand towel draped around the camera and the top of the lens to try and prevent any kind of short circuit.  It actually did quite well for the brief time it was needed).

We bought this little Princess umbrella in early December when we were in Palm Desert and it rained for the first few days.  All things princess for Kate and even when it was sunny, she wanted to carry this thing.  Plus they don’t really come out of the womb knowing about the ages old superstition about opening an umbrella indoors.  That old umbrella never had a Disney princess on it, obviously.

And then later today Kate took out the paint brushes and proceeded to turn my wife into an extra for Mel Gibson in Braveheart.  It’s too bad, I just didn’t want to post two face painting photos in a week, even though I really liked the one today, as well.

So I had a slight touch of sadness watching her as she trudged through the rain to the car for the trek to the dance studio.  This would be her last day.  At least for now.  She’ll still take gymnastics but it sure was a joy watching her twirl and spin and learn tap dance as we viewed her class through the windows at Cal Elite.  For some reason she just didn’t want to continue.  I’m not sure why, and perhaps in time she’ll want to do it again.  We’ll encourage it.  We talked about it and didn’t want to push her to stay in ballet at this age.

I hope we did the right thing.

When it gets quiet during a playdate, you know they’re up to something.

Today Eva came for an extended playdate and to give mom Erin a bit of time to do some work.  We do have great neighbors like them and plus living in a town where you practically have to have a child to be admitted doesn’t hurt either when making these kind of kid exchanges for the morning or afternoon.

I was in another upstairs room and heard the typical little spats between the girls as they battled it out for Candyland supremacy.

But then it got quiet.

Hmmm.  Let’s walk down the hall and sneak a look.

Sure enough, one of them pulled out the face paints from the closet (I thought Nicki had them hidden?!) and then McGyvered a princess drinking cup  — voila — instant mess.

But I had to smile a bit on the inside too, because I  just knew that it would probably give me my image for the day.  I’m lucky, I’m able to periodically just pop in like this, make a few images and then head back to work.

A true fringe benefit about working from home.