Week 52: I'm Three!

I thought this shot from tonight was the most appropriate - and more than ever, it was tough to choose the one to feature. As I type, "I'm Three!" I have The Who blaring in my head (I'm Free from Tommy), so I thought this was Jonah's rocker pose. He's trying to make a three with his right hand. . .

What an amazing year it has been. What a FAST year it has been. Jonah has changed so much in this past year that I can't even begin to put it into words. We started the year with a toddler and now we have a full blown kid. Jonah has been very verbal for quite awhile, but now he speaks in complete, clear sentences and doesn't stop talking. All things considered, his Terrible Twos weren't so bad. The jury's still out on the threes, though!

We had Jonah's Birthday Party this past weekend, a week early, at the Children's Museum of Art here in Manhattan. What a great spot! We were fortunate that so many of his friends, and our friends, could come join us in celebrating our little boy turning three. There was lots to do including a group mural project in the style of Jackson Pollock. Lots of fun! Photos from that are here.

I'm so glad that I took a leap and dove into this project. I feel I've grown quite a bit as a photographer over this year - more as a dad, though. It was great to force myself to slow down from time to time and take note of things. I needed some details to focus on and bring to life in photos. This helped me gain that focus during an insanely busy part of our lives. Thanks to everyone who has expressed such kind words to me about the blog and about the photos. I truly appreciate them. So many of you have asked if I'm going to continue this - and I will. I may not hit every single week like I have this past year, but I'm going to try. I've got some more leaping to do as a photographer over the next year or two - stay tuned.

So, thanks to everyone who has followed along. I hope you keep reading and keeping up with us.

I'll indulge, since this is the last post of the first 52 weeks and leave you with a few of my other favorites from tonight's shoot:

This was my original concept:

 didn't read as well as I'd imagined.

I ALMOST chose this one for the lead photo:

Couple of others that are cute:

All of the photos are me going Joel Grimes on Jonah - minus the cool HDR backgrounds. So - three light setup. Strobe back camera left in a gridded stripbox; strobe back camera right in a gridded softbox (because I only own one stripbox currently); and the key is a strobe in a 53" octabank high above the lens. The full body shots are 50mm and the closer shots are 135mm - all at f/2.8

Thanks again everyone!