This afternoon

I came upon this scene in the upstairs hallway. She was having a snack and watching the TV all the way in the bedroom. I guess a big(ish) screen and youthful eyesight come in handy. That big out of focus pile extending into the foreground? Er, my laundry (and not even all of it).



It did look like a comfy little resting spot.

Charlotte

Two studio shots of Charlotte. Was playing with my new chair and getting ready for a session tomorrow. Charlotte agreed to wear the dress after a little persuasion. She immediately decided that her Aurora princess shoes would be a perfect complement to the outfit. She let me pose her in the chair with her legs tucked back, but we left the shoe peeking out there so everyone could still get the full effect of the ensemble.

Bunk Beds

We promised Charlotte bunk beds a few months ago and finally delivered. Derek put them together today and the girls saw them for the first time when I brought them home from school. They seem to love them. We'll see how the first night goes.

Grace was so pleased with herself for getting up there (and she figured out how to get down, too. yeah!)



Here Charlotte is in the corner putting her craft things away in her desk. I told her all about how the new beds would have a desk just for her and she could put all her markers and scissors and glue and sparkles and paper and stickers and whateverallelse she collects for her projects away in it. She was excited. I was excited, too, because right now all those things live permanently scattered on MY desk. Charlotte is really into doing crafty little (well, big) projects of her own design. She comes up with all kinds of ideas of things to make. She is pretty good at it, too.





I thought I would take a second to snap a few shots of the baby's room before he is in it. I really needed a fisheye lens here. It is a very small room.



Want to start a pool as to which one of us will be the first to whack his head on the shelf when lifting him up off the changing pad?



The quilt will get hung on the wall and I have a graphic design project brewing for the opposite wall but it hasn't come together just yet.



A few more from the girls room. The view from the foot of Grace's bed. Charlotte and I hung all the clothes up together one day. It was our project. She was very helpful. The stool in there is so that they can pick out their own outfits (note what Charlotte is wearing above).



In the 3 minutes that it took to take the 4 shots above, this is what the room transformed into. The discouraging part is that this is still pretty picked up by normal standards.

Gracie painting

Grace yesterday evening on the deck painting. She carefully uses each color one at a time, closing the lid on one before she opens the next. She's painting with her left hand here, but she seems to switch freely. Unlike Charlotte who has been a confirmed lefty in all areas from day one.



The eyelash shot - a classic for when they absolutely refuse to look at you. I was also playing with my 85mm F1.8 shooting wide open so it was a good test for focus.

Pre-spring

I was talking with some photographers on-line about new and interesting ideas for less conventional settings for pictures. I went off on a tangent saying that I get so many people who want to photograph outdoors and have that "let's wait for the good weather" attitude. In Buffalo, the good weather sometimes doesn't come around until June. In general, we have a pretty short "green" season but I think all the seasons are beautiful if you look for it. So, my personal challenge became to take the very dead, brown, pre-spring comditions and make it interesting and fun for portraits. Brown is in, right? All the trendy color pallettes I see are still very brown-centric. Easy. So here is my homage the the color brown.

Grace was my unwitting assistant. She did really great. Her motivation was looking for dogs that she could pet walking on the bike path. We met a few really nice, friendly ones. Grace loves dogs. She squeals. Literally.

I really like the monochromatic colors and all the textures. I would have loved to get deeper into the tall weeds and cattails, but the ground is still wet and Grace doesn't like to get messy. I think mud would be awesome for these, though. Any little ones out there want to come model for me in some mud puddles?

Charlotte freezing her tush off

Charlotte stayed home with me on Friday since she had a doctor's checkup appointment right in the middle of the day. We had that pretty 4" spring snow fall the night before, so i convinced her to put on her white dress and go out for some pictures. She was a trooper about the cold. In my defense it was above freezing (just barely).

Web size really doesn't do these justice. If you click on them they load a little bigger. Ignore the watermarks. I posted these up on another forum.

Some stuff I shot in Vegas

I spent 3.5 days of our Vegas vacation at an awesome workshop with the Coopers and the Boutwells. These four are amazing wedding photographers and brilliant artists in general and just damn cool people to hang out with. Without gushing and rambling and boring you all, it was really great. I loved it.

Check out their sites if you have some time:

I almost wish we could get married again just so that Chenin could photograph it - the Boutwells

One of John's signature images is the bride in the desert with her dress engulfed in flames (his Joan of Arc). He pioneered the trash the dress sessions that are now a big trend - altf - the Coopers

On the second day we shot in small groups with models around downtown Las Vegas. Here are a couple of my shots. Not my usual stuff and not all technically perfect, but really fun to play.





My shooting partner Jeff enrolled the LVPD cop in this setup.






The pool at the Golden Nugget. She did actually go in a little after this was shot. Bonus, we did NOT get kicked out!

The girls playing

I found these almost 2 year old pictures of Grace and Charlotte playing together at the old house. I think this was one of the very first times that I caught them actually playing with the same thing at the same time. At the time it gave me hope that they would someday actually be friends. Even with all the fighting they sometimes do these days, they really, truly are friends. When I pick them up at pre-school and Charlotte and I go into Grace's room Grace always runs over and they hug each other first thing.