Week 44: Ms. Chiho

This is our good friend Chiho. Jonah absolutely loves her! Thankfully, she feels similarly about Jonah. Jonah will ask for her completely out of the blue and be upset when we explain that she is at her house. We often, therefore, ask Chiho if she is available to babysit Jonah when Mom and Dad have an event or just need a break. It's so reassuring to know that you have a friend who you trust completely that you can turn to for a night away. Jonah behaves wonderfully (or, at least that's what she tells us), eats, sleeps. . . . in short, he is better for her than he is for us!

Ever since Jonah was an infant, Chiho has played a large roll in his life. She's been around and has been one of two babysitters - outside of Grandmas and Grandpas. Our other babysitter just had a baby of her own! So, she holds the monopoly in our house.

Life has been nuts since the holidays. Way too much travel and lots going on when I am in town. Photos have been a bit rushed and I knew I would have to get this one in early this week as I leave on yet another trip first thing tomorrow. An old friend of ours was recently named the Director of Choral Activities at Harvard and conducted a concert at Grace Church here in NYC this weekend. We needed a night out and wanted to go and support Andy, so we called Chiho. Jonah had a rough day that day, but perked right up as soon as she walked in the door. Time was tight, but I knew I wanted to use this as my blog post for the week. I had a feeling Jonah would comply since Ms. Chiho was involved - he did. He was asked to smile and this was his reaction.

Photo - this one is pretty simple. Chiho and Jonah are standing about 6 feet from a white collapsible backdrop. This is lit with a Profoto head in an 5' Octabox slightly camera right with a white reflector directly below their faces just out of frame. 135mm lens at f/4.5.

Week 43: Perpetual Motion

Anyone who believes perpetual motion exists only in theory has never been around Jonah. The boy has two speeds - fast and off. Even in "off" mode, it seems like he just keeps moving (he's a very restless sleeper) When he sits still at the dinner table, his legs stop, but his mouth starts. He is very verbal and chatters away incessantly Just being around him can make you tired; in fact, I have come to the conclusion that toddlers get their energy by syphoning it away from any adult with 20 yards. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that he is so curious and so ready to learn, explore and experiment. I just wish he could take a 10 minute break from time to time!

In all seriousness, it's a great deal of fun watching him, listening to him and trying to keep up with him.  Mom and Dad stay tired right now, but we are having a great time all the same.

I've been trying to figure out a way to show his activity in a still frame for a few weeks now. I recently came across a video of a couple of shoots that Joe McNally did - one with a dancer and one with a martial artist - where he combined motion blur with flashes. This is a derivative of his technique and his much better photos. This photo isn't exactly what I had in mind, but it's close. I think I know what I could do to improve it, but I'd have to buy some more stuff or rent a space larger than our basement. On top of all that, I'd need Jonah to listen to direction a bit more - so I decided to go with this one.

Photo - this is done in the camera with one frame. Photoshop only came into play for some curves and saturation adjustments to darken the background and bring out the light trails. Stick with me on this one - Jonah is walking on and in front of a draped piece of black fabric. Directly above his head where you see the light trails is a Profoto head in a 1x4' stripbox pointed straight down. That light is used only for the modeling light - it does not flash, just provides a low continuous light. There is another Profoto head camera left in a beauty dish. It flashed as the shutter curtain closed. That flash is triggered by a small speedlight on camera set to rear curtain sync, pointing backward and dialed all the way down. That speedlight does not influence the exposure in anyway - just triggers the Profoto in the beauty dish. This is a Bulb exposure. I started the shutter when Jonah started walking toward the scene - off camera right; I released the shutter when he approached beauty dish.

Hope you enjoyed the little experiment this week. It was a lot of fun trying to create it.

Week 42: Holiday Cheer!

One more Holiday themed post before we pack up the boxes and move on into the new year. And yes, our tree was down long ago. However, I have to admit that I was much more in the Holiday Spirit this year than for the past many - Jonah was almost completely the reason. He really enjoyed the season this year, seemed to understand most of it and was just a joy to be around. While our flight delays made for a hectic trip to Missouri, it was very worth it to spend more time with Jonah just being his (mostly) happy self.

It's a lot of fun for me to take Jonah back to Grandma Connie and Grandpa Jack's house around the Holidays. My mom loves to keep everything that has any hint of sentimental value and she brings every scrap of it out when decorating. There are decorations, ornaments and little trinkets from my childhood everywhere. Especially now that Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Nall are no longer living in their home and my mom "inherited" all of their belongings; there are trinkets, ornaments, etc. from their house as well. It's a trip down memory lane and it's a great deal of fun seeing Jonah discover it all for the first time.

The little Santa toy above was one of my favorites as a child. I remember it well and remember playing with it for hours at my Grandparents' house. Jonah found it this year and squealed with delight every time it popped and went flying into the air. The more he played, the more he squealed, giggled and asked for more. Then he started giggling and shaking with anticipation, just waiting for it to pop. He didn't want to leave it behind as we packed things up and headed for the airport. Grandma Connie handed it to me and told me to take it with us. I'm not sure if she wanted Jonah to have it or if she just wanted to get one item out of her house! I instantly saw a potential photo and dropped it into my camera bag.

It's nice to see some things don't change from generation to generation. The same toys that captured my attention as a child now capture my child's attention. That continuity is comforting.

This photo is a composite of five frames. Five frames out of 200-ish. Kristi helped by getting Santa ready in between attempts. She made a comment that she thought this shot was a bit more luck than skill - I'm pretty sure it lies firmly in both camps; I seemed to have neither today! Regardless, a big thanks to her for making this shot much easier on me. Each frame is lit by a Profoto strobe on camera right in a 3x4' softbox and an on-axis ringflash 2 stops down for fill. This is shot with my 135mm lens at f/7.1. Wave a little Photoshop magic over the top, et voila!

Week 41: Grandma Connie and Grandpa Jack

This was a wild Christmas. We decided that it was time to stay at our home for Christmas Day and start our own family traditions. Done. We planned to fly to Missouri the day after Christmas so that we would still have a solid week to visit Grandparents, Great Grandparents and other friends and family. Mother Nature had other plans. So, our trip was cut in half and we just returned from successfully shoehorning 6 Christmases into 4 days.

It was, however, very worth it. It was wonderful to have a few extra, unplanned, days at home to hang out, play in the snow and just relax. Our trip to Missouri almost didn't happen even after we were successfully booked on an non-cancelled flight. I won't go into the details here, but let's just say that, after many problems, lines and surprisingly helpful airline agents, we ran through the airport and boarded our flight with - no exaggeration - about 3 minutes to spare. I thought on many occasions that it wouldn't happen, but we made it. In my frustration and angst, I thought that it wouldn't be worth the trouble, but it was. We had a nice trip, saw many loved ones and are back home safe and sound.

While I had planned to do two weeks of Grandparent portraits for the blog, last week was preempted by the Blizzard of 2010. Well, it's 2011, so we are back to our regularly scheduled programming. I almost didn't have time to get this shot in and I thought the weather was going to play a role in my plan-B-ing it again. Time with family was extremely tight this year. Between Jonah's schedule, our travel time and planned Christmas celebrations, my window for a portrait with Grandma Connie and Grandpa Jack was about 15 minutes this morning before we had to run to the airport. I had a shot in my mind in their back yard by their shed which I thought would provide an interesting graphic element. The light outside was really nice this morning, too. It was, however, 18 degrees outside (it was in the 60's the first two days of our trip). The light inside their house was not cooperating and I didn't bring a flash along with me for this quick trip. After a couple of failed attempts, I decided for one last Hail Mary, leaving the front door open just behind them to keep enough heat flowing for a quick few frames.

I've been wanting to capture Grandparent portraits recently because Jonah has shown that he really knows them and longs to visit them. He's been looking forward to going to Missouri for the last few weeks and woke up from nap this afternoon, after we were home, asking where Grandma and Grandpa's house was. He did NOT want to stay home. It's fun to watch him interact with them as they get to know each other. Of course, he gets spoiled at both grandparents' homes. I guess the photo with Kristi's parents will have to wait until around his birthday when they are scheduled to come back to NYC.

Photo - straight forward sunlight shot with a rented (and amazing) 85mm lens at f/4.

Happy New Year, everyone!