One Camera. One Lens. One Photo a Day.

“Your daughter wants you to go up stairs and find her ” Nicki said to me with a smirk.  In the middle of our preparations for the trip to S. Africa, I got a good sense where she would be.

Walking into the room, the psychedelic suitcases that Nicki bought two years ago for her last trip to Africa were against the wall, the room quiet.

Inside one of them Kate had a pillow and was playing hide and seek from Mom and Dad. This would entertain her for quite a while (this image was made later on my second attempt to “find” her).

Nicki spent all day packing, cleaning, and taking care of the kids; I spent all day finishing prints for delivery, running errands and trying to tie up the loose ends.  She had the much harder job.

We’ve never been away for this long and we’re excited.  And the thought of the nearly 38 hours of transit time leaves us a bit apprehensive too.

It’s going to be a great big adventure and in less than 24 hours it begins.

Evidence of Kate…

Just in case we might forget she’s here, Kate reminds us of her presence.

Our friend Val stopped by late this morning and while she was there and chatting this morning, Kate took her sidewalk chalk and made these designs.  Somehow when we weren’t even looking, she picked some berries from the bushes outside of the front gate and then placed them right in the middle of the butterflies she drew.  I made a couple of images right after she did it but they didn’t quite work.

Two hours later, I poked my head out the front door and the light had changed.  It was more directional, though still soft muted by the cloud cover, but enough to make out shadows of the gate.  That little difference of just a couple of hours and a slightly different angle, made all the difference in the photograph.

We’re on the cusp of spring.

Even with the rains, the recent cold, spring has still been coming on.

This afternoon I headed to a Ladera Park where Nicki was with the baby meeting Trina and her kids.  It was a low-key play date.  I also ran into Heather and Grace, friends and clients.

While I thought for certain that the photo of the day would be one of the kids (either mine, Trina’s or Heather’s) — and as much as I liked them — the photo that struck me the most was this little frame.

It was made when I was walking up the steps to say hi to Nicki and it was the first thing that I noticed.  That sense is that thing  that makes you stop and is something that I have learned to trust.  There’s usually a photo there.

Today was a hectic day of running errands,  and getting things done for the final push to the big trip ahead. Late this afternoon, I was able to share a pint with my neighbor Sean, at our favorite local pub.

Four days and the big journey will be here.

With so much to do, I had just brief little windows to photograph…not very much time at all.

But, thankfully, I always have two willing subjects who are always doing something right til the end of a busy day for them too.

This morning I spent documenting a few hours in the life of a preschool.

It was great to get back behind the camera for an extended project — today at a lovely preschool in San Juan Capistrano.

I’ll be doing their spring portraits in April and the sessions will be very natural and spontaneous all on location at the school.  My kind of sessions.

While there is often beauty in the posed portrait, I really love to find the portrait that is in the midst of moments.  As is this one.

The school has a special celebration for a student on their birthday.  It’s the first time I’ve seen the ritual and it was very cool.  The final part of the ceremony is for the student to create a crown to wear during the day.

It was a terrific morning at a terrific place and I look forward to going back next month!

Wearing his lunch…

Kate takes a break from feeding her brother his carrots this afternoon at lunchtime.

It’s been amazing to watch how these two have grown together in the five months he has been here.

Sparky absolutely adores his sister and is quick to smile when she sends a big smile and a laugh his way.  Of course she’s going a bit over the top (what? Kate??) but that only makes it better.

She took great pride in feeding her brother today but we’re thinking that more of the lunch ended up on the face and the bib than in his belly.

Marlee had her fourth birthday party today.  I keep saying this, but I can’t believe how quickly time has flown.  I can distinctly remember the first birthday party, in one of the Ladera parks.  The blink of an eye.

A portrait I had scheduled for today we rescheduled because of the odd weather. While I’m disappointed that fell through, I had a chance then to go see the kids celebrate Marlee’s birthday at Cal Elite.

Cal Elite is a big deal in our kids’ lives (Kate and Marlee).  They both are very physical kids, and do pretty well with gymnastics and tumbling.  And the best thing is that they love going there.  It’s an encouraging place for kids and we’re thankful it’s so close to home.

So Marlee had the big party and after a good hour of free play in the gym it was time for the celebration.

Marlee blew out her candle, cupcakes were consumed by all the kids, and then we all headed home, just in time to put the kids to bed.  Here Kate looks back at Marlee as they were the last to leave the party.

The Girl in The Bubble…

Nicki got a note from our friend Trina that there is a new kid’s park in Ladera and it just opened on Friday.  Trina who knows Ladera better than some realtors was there on the first day to suss it out.  It passed the Trina inspection.

We would be there on the second day.

And it was a great afternoon.  Kate enjoyed doing her gymnastics on the monkey bars (especially to show off when her buddy Ben happened to come by with his parents and sister) and meeting new friends like John and Nick who were also all checking out the new park with their parents’ as well.

Ladera is loaded with parks and many smaller pocket parks which are perfect for a town with very large demographic of young children (I wonder what will happen 20 years from now — will Ladera still stay a beacon to the young families of Southern OC or will it morph into something else??) and this was in a very exclusive part of town.  High on a hillside, overlooking the area, this park sits, nestled in the midst of what are surely multi million dollar custom homes, some still being completed.

But all that didn’t matter to Kate or her new found friends — all they cared was that they had free reign on the monkey bars and jungle jim and checking out the world through a brand new plastic bubble with not one scratch on it.

I wasn’t quite sure what would be the photo of the day.

Later this afternoon, I thought of an idea.  The local dog run, just up the road from us, would  be a good place to go.  Especially since rain was forcast for later tonight and tomorrow.

We hadn’t been there for a long time, and I thought Kate would love seeing the dogs.  Oddly enough, though, she showed some trepidation around the dogs, which is so surprising to me since when she was little she was fearless.  We joked that she was a bit of a “Dog Whisperer” she just seemed to love being around the dogs. And they loved her.

They did love her and came running to her, and I think she still had a good time there, but when Mom proposed we go check out the t ball practices going on, she was all for that and took off for the gate.  Sports and games have taken over.

Even though her affinity for dogs has waned over the past couple of years (and there’s a side of me that hopes that little fearless little dog lover comes back), I’m glad we went.  Because seeing this collection of dogs in this moment made the little jaunt so worth it.

I escaped from behind the Orange Curtain today.

I forget how much of an island that living in Southern Orange County can be.  From the well manicured lawns, the white picket fences, the tile roofs, it’s easy to think that just about everyone lives like us.

But take a road trip about 50 miles north into LA and you’re reminded that it is a bubble.  So close and yet so amazingly different.  When we first moved to LA I couldn’t imagine that there would be such a gulf between the counties.

LA is trendy and hip, gritty and urban; the OC (especially by us) is very suburban, Mom and Pop.  There are hipper spots, like Laguna Beach and Newport Beach but they’re still different from LA.

I went up to the city for an event in the evening and a couple of meetings during the late afternoon and it was great to get away.  Tough not tucking the kids into bed, but this was a rare night out.

The image below is from an open house at the new RPL (Richard Photo Lab) on La Brea in Hollywood.  They’ve got an amazing space that is sparsely elegant and showcases the work they do for commercial, portrait and wedding photographers as well as the work they do for Hollywood (they had some printed stills from the new Scorsese flick with Leo that looked great).  Brian’s got a superb operation — it’s where I have my film processed and scanned and no place that I have found scans real silver-based b & w film better than Richards.  Plus Fuji was there, Cypress Albums (very high ranks for quality, style and elegance) and a nice assortment of photographers from the area.  There was a brief and fleetingly rare Smogranch (Dan Milnor) sighting there, too.  He presented me with a lovely gift of the b & w images he made at Sparky’s baptism two weeks ago…I’ll see if I can post them on the other blog…he made some fantastic images.

As nice as it is to escape the Orange Curtain, I do always feel at home when I turn off the I-5 for Ladera Ranch.