Old School or Just Getting Old?

First - sorry for the lag between posts. Many, many things going on and I have been neglecting the blog. I will try to do better!

Second - sorry, and you've probably guessed this, but this post is NOT about Jonah.

Great! For those who have not already closed the page - let's go!

Most of you are aware that I've been working on a year long project to further my photography skill set and to deepen my understanding of the business side of the industry. I'm halfway through and can't even begin to explain how much I've grown in 6 months. It's really been remarkable. One major component that I've been focusing on is finding my style, or my voice, in photography. It's one thing to take a collection of nice shots. It's not enough, though. Someone needs to be able to look at your work and know that you took the photo.

I'll never forget one lesson in an introductory conducting class in undergrad (conducting music, for anyone that may not know that bit of my background). We watched videos of world-famous conductors. We analyzed the visual. Analyzed the sounds. Then we listened to recordings of the same group of conductors. We were instantly able to identify which conductor we were hearing. Same idea with photography.

I'm getting there through a lot of shooting, analyzing and comparison. I'm seeing a style emerge and it's very exciting! It really informs my starting point when I am approaching a new assignment.

In exploring various aspects of my approach to photography, I had an urge to purchase a film camera. Yes, they still make film and yes, there are still many labs that still process film. I decided if I was going to dive into film it needed to be different than my digital cameras in a big way - no 35mm. I bought an old Mamiya medium format camera that shoots to 120 film. I've been learning it. It is 100% manual. No auto anything. I LOVE it. I've blown a lot of shots. I've also come up with a few that I adore.

There's been something in the look of digital photography that just wasn't getting me where I wanted to be. I chalked it up (and still do to some extent) to my photoshop skills - until I got my first roll of 120 back from the lab. A portrait of Kristi that I snapped jumped off the page at me. Bingo. It isn't a perfect photograph, but it was the look that I'd been missing.

I was recently commissioned to create a few portraits of an NYC photographer for a friend's blog. (I'll share the post when it is published) I took both digital and film cameras along and ended up shooting mostly digital because time was short and I know my Canon much better. However, I took some fairly straight forward portraits with both cameras. I edited the digital shots first while I was waiting for the film to come back from the lab. When I scanned the negatives in my jaw hit the table. I really liked the digital files until I saw the film scans. I'm not sure if you'll be able to see it as drastically in this medium due to the compression on the photos, but here are a couple of comparisons of somewhat similar shots.

Digital

Film

Digital

Film

The shots are straight up window light camera left with a white reflector camera right.

So, the question stands - it just something about old school photo making, or am I just getting old and preferring old things? :)

Balloons

My how quickly things change when you're three.

Jonah came home from the store with Kristi yesterday with a pack of balloons. He wanted me to blow up a blue one (blue is a big thing right now). I did and about three minutes later it popped in his hands. Not sure why. It may have been a defective balloon. I may have put too much air in it. No clue. Regardless, Jonah was upset.

I thought he was upset about losing the balloon, so I blew up another blue one. Turns out he was just scared. He insisted that I take the air out of the balloon because that was the last blue one and he wanted to play with it. Have you ever tried to untie an inflated balloon? I don't recommend it. After about 20 minutes of working on it, I succeeded and order was restored.

So, today we went to a friends birthday party. To no one's surprise, there were balloons. We weren't sure  how Jonah would react. He played it cool at first and then the other kids started asking for balloons. He decided he wanted a balloon too. Thankfully, the balloon survived the windy walk home and he loves it! I just knew it was going to pop at any moment and scar him for life, but the balloon hung in there.

When I noticed that it pretty much matched his shirt, I knew it was time for a photo.

Photo - this is three lights. The key is a strobe in a beauty dish aimed at his face from camera right. There is a strobe in a 3x4' softbox camera left for fill and a gridded strobe back camera left on the balloon. 50mm lens at f/11.

Bubble Break

What a tough weekend! It was wet and chilly and very tough to get outside. By Sunday afternoon, Jonah was bouncing off the walls. Thankfully the rain broke for awhile this afternoon and we were able to get him out onto our little patio for a bit. We took some bubbles out and let him play.

Realizing that I haven't been very regular about posting, I decided I would try to get a shot. I knew what I wanted. This was not it. I'm not sure what possessed me to think that I could wrangle a three year old into a specific photo after he had been cooped up for a majority of the weekend, but I thought I could make it work. I was wrong. Anyway, I got a few that I thought were OK, but mostly we were just all out having a little fun in our own ways.

For the longest time I had trouble shooting photos of Jonah with bubbles. The bubbles always disappeared. It finally dawned on me the two things I was missing - depth of field and LIGHT. It seems you pretty much have to light bubbles in order for them to really show up - or find really nice, bright, available light. Moreover though, using a shallow depth of field and focusing on Jonah lets the bubbles evaporate into the out of focus areas. Live and learn, I suppose.

Photo - this is an 85mm lens at f/5.6. There is a strobe in a white beauty dish slightly camera right.

Welcome Spring!

Hi everyone! Sorry that it has been so long between posts. After completing the 52 weeks I decided it was in everyone's best interest to take a few weeks off. I've still been shooting a lot and working on another 52 week project with a group of photographers, but haven't been including Jonah on any of those photos. 

So, here we are - April 22 - and the temperature barely got above 50 degrees here today. Sadly - that was the norm for this spring. Don't get me wrong - I love running in these cool mornings and I will be longing for them when Mother Nature decides to be testy in the other way and make it 80+degrees with 90% humidity at 6 AM. . . I know it's coming. However, all of the rain and cold has made for a dreary, lingering end to a miserable winter. 

All that said, though, Kristi and Jonah have been trying to get into the spirit by working on some plants. The flower above was purchased from a new local florist and Jonah picked it out all by himself. He was pretty cute as he proudly carried it down the sidewalk on the walk home. He's been watering it and watching it grow.

Photo-wise - here's my original vision for the photo:

After seeing it on the computer, Kristi suggested the crop above. I like both and can't decide which I prefer. Any thoughts?

Looking at the full frame - this is three lights: a strobe in a strip box low on the pots, a strobe in a white beauty dish high and on Jonah and a strobe with a grid pointed at the back wall. There are two white reflectors - one on either side of the pots giving a little more definition to the sides and backs. This is my 135mm lens at f/9.

Thanks for following along and thanks for understanding the break! I hope to make these posts fairly regularly now.

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!

Week 51: Yet Another Portrait

As I mentioned in the last post, I wanted to close out these last few weeks with a few portraits of Jonah to capture him at this point in life. I wanted to capture him as he appears physically - he's just changing so quickly! However, I didn't fully anticipate just how much personality would come through, as well. I'm not sure why I didn't foresee that. . . guess it was the photographer side of me thinking more than the dad. Jonah oozes personality, both for better and for worse, at every moment.

This photo is more or less what I wanted to get this week. . . probably closer to the less, but again, that's the photographer speaking more than the dad. The light is more or less right. The reflection is more or less right. However, the boy and the prop are a bit different. I had a different train in mind. Jonah decided that he wanted a ball. Great! Jonah has been taking a soccer class at school lately and it's all he really talks about at home; a ball was a great prop for this portrait. Then he decided he didn't want the ball. I tried to encourage him to "make a picture" with the ball - bad idea. He eventually chose this train and instantly started driving it in circles around the white plexiglass "table" it's sitting on. The sheet of plexiglass is 2'x4' and the rate at which he was moving covered the two feet window of shot opportunity faster than I could get the camera focused and the shutter depressed.

Kristi was a saint and helped me get him wrangled. He stood and "smiled" for a fleeting moment and I just got the shot in before he was off again. Jonah is where I wanted him - the train, not even close. Oh well, this is a more accurate portrayal of Jonah than what I had envisioned! Jonah is very opinionated anymore and is constantly on the go. Getting him to do what you would like him to do at the time you would like him to do it is becoming increasingly difficult. I have a sneaking suspicion that the terrible twos will much more likely be the terrible threes for Jonah. We'll see.

Photo - this is a piece of white seamless paper as the backdrop and a sheet of white plexiglass set on two footstools as a table. Lighting is pretty simple - there is a gridded strobe camera right and focused on the seamless. It's aimed low to give the gradient as you go up. The key is a strobe in a 53" octabank camera right. 135mm lens at f/8.

Week 50: Another Portrait

It's really hard to believe it's been almost a full year since I started this project, but here we are. Jonah has changed so much in the past year. He's definitely a preschooler now - not even a toddler anymore. He's grown so much physically but even more mentally. So, as we start to wrap up the year I thought I would take a couple of portraits. Not a lot to say - just a testament to how much he has grown and changed in the past year. Here's the first.

I had been wanting to experiment with this lighting for awhile and finally got the shot in. This is three lights. The background is a strobe in a 3x4' softbox firing directly back into the camera. There are two strobes in shoot through umbrellas directly in front of the camera - one low aimed up and one high aimed down. The 135mm lens is directly between the two umbrellas.

Week 49: The Gift to be Simple

My thoughts this week are an outgrowth of last week's post and also bit repetitive. I never ceases to amaze me watching Jonah play. Needless to say, he's growing up in a time of enormous growth in technology and he's certainly pre-wired to use it all. He knows how to use my iPhone as if it were second nature. He has plenty of toys with lights, wires, music, noise makers. . . any kind of distraction that you can imagine.

All of that said, though, the toys that he turns to most often look like the one in the photo for this week. He has three wooden trains. He loves them all and gets a lot of good out of them. He has old-school metal Tonka trucks - loves them. One of his favorite games is taking the cardboard boxes from items we have delivered and hooking them together to make a train he can pretend to ride. He has all of the more advanced distractions, and they catch his eye from time to time, but that attraction has always been fleeting and he returns to his simple toys like I played with. Like my father played with. Like his father played with.

I just came back from a business trip to Boston and Providence this evening and had to get my photo in for the week. The last meeting I had before getting on the real train back to NYC was with a superintendent with whom I'm just beginning to work. After the business was discussed we started chatting about our families. She has two boys that are both grown and she was giving me some pointers and things to expect. She asked Jonah's age and started giving me birthday present tips - her number one tip was to go buy cardboard boxes, duct tape, string and a bolt of fabric for creating forts, tunnels, castles, etc. She said that was the best money she ever spent on a toy for her children. I believe it.

When we were back in Missouri this past week for Great Grandpa's funeral, Jonah instantly saw the wooden train that Great Grandpa had made some time ago sitting up on a shelf. He wanted it. Badly. We tried to distract him with other things as we weren't sure how Great Grandma would feel about Jonah playing with the train - could have gone either way as our emotions were certainly on our sleeves. Jonah was persistent and eventually got his way. That train occupied him for hours over the course of multiple days. The train stayed with Great Grandma, but I know that Jonah will remember to ask for it the next time we're in town.

It really is wonderful watching him use his imagination. It's heartwarming to know that he'd rather use his imagination and play with a simple toy (most of the time) than turn to the toy with lights and buzzers. I know it will change when he discovers video games, though. . .

Photo: This is three lights. The train is sitting on a piece of white plexiglass and the white background is a light in a 3x4' softbox set up against the plexiglass. That light is 2.5 stops over the main exposure. There is a light high camera right in a reflective umbrella for highlights and the other light is low camera left in a reflective umbrella. That light provides the main fill and exposure for the train. This is shot on my 135mm lens at f/8.

Week 48: Great Grandpa

Well, sometimes life just keeps punching. I have to admit that this post is more about me than about Jonah because he's too young to understand what happened.

Kristi and I waited for quite awhile after getting married to have Jonah - 10 years, in fact. Not completely uncommon for people in our generation, but a far cry from the world of our Grandparents, or even our parents for that matter. I'll never forget what my grandparents said when my mom told them we were going to have a baby: "oh, they decided to adopt!" I guess they had given up on us. Sadly, both of my dad's parents had been gone for quite awhile before Jonah came along, but thankfully, both of my mom's parents were still here to meet him. Needless to say, they are crazy about him. My grandpa was always asking for more time with him and, unfortunately, it always seemed that our time was rushed. Being in a different timezone with a young child is challenging when trying to get in meals and naps. Particularly Jonah - I swear you can set your watch by the kid. He's very scheduled.

This past Christmas was particularly rushed thanks to the blizzard abbreviating our schedule. Very sadly, that would be the last time I would see my grandpa alive. He passed away this Monday morning. He was blessed with a long, full life but had been failing for quite some time.

I was on a work trip in Denver last week when I got word that he was in the hospital again. That wasn't a terribly uncommon occurrence, but we always took it seriously. However, it was clear that his body was starting to shut down this time. He decided to go gracefully and was sent home with Hospice care on Saturday. I got back to NYC on Saturday and tried desperately to make it back with Jonah so we could see him - but moreover, so Grandpa could have a bit more time with Jonah. Unfortunately, I missed him by a day. I planned for this photo to be of Grandpa and Jonah, but it wasn't to be. Here's hoping we more time for Great Grandma, pictured above, to watch Jonah grow.

Great Grandpa loved to work with wood. We spent a lot of time in my childhood in his wood shop. About 10 or so years ago, one of my mom's friends commissioned him to build a school bus for her son who wanted a bus for his Beanie Babies to ride. Her son graduated from high school this year and in an act of wonderful generosity and impeccable timing, that friend gave the bus to us at Christmas so Jonah could have the bus his Great Grandpa made. Jonah absolutely loves it and Grandpa got to see that joy on his face in the bit of time we had together at Christmas.

So, here's to you Grandpa! Thank you. I love you.

Week 47: Little Chef

One thing is for certain with Jonah - he likes to help. He's good at cleaning up his toys, once you get him focused on the task. He loves taking something or other to Mommy or Daddy whenever needed. He loves to help feed Mr. Fish, too. We try to include him whenever possible and while sometimes that's not practical, we often make a point of including him in the kitchen.

We'd read that one strategy for getting kids to eat a wider variety of foods was to include them in the preparation. That was the initial motivation for asking him to help with tasks that I knew would lead to more work when he's around. Sadly, it didn't really work. However, Jonah now loves to help cook - especially breakfast. At least once a week he'll request to make waffles. A close second in the number of requests is banana bread or scones. You can tell we prefer carbs for breakfast to the protein heavy breakfasts in the midwest!

This weekend he got a double dose of cooking. I needed something chocolate to photograph for another project I'm working on, so Jonah helped make chocolate cupcakes. He'd been asking to make banana bread as we had a few bananas that were just right for baking, so this morning Mommy and Jonah made banana bread while I set up a couple of lights. I know that Jonah wanting to be in the middle of everything won't last forever and I'm doing my best to enjoy it while it lasts. It is hard sometimes when the flour goes flying everywhere and about a cup and a half of salt gets poured into a mix that required 1/2 teaspoon while I'm reaching for the milk. I do hope that this early exposure to the kitchen will lead to a lifelong love of cooking, though. I know I have been well served by my mom teaching me to cook as a child.

Photo - this one was very quick. Jonah was fine with cooking, but was ready to play when I asked him to move his stool over and look at the camera. I got a dozen frames at best, most in which Jonah was sporting a grimace. This is a Profoto head in a beauty dish on camera right and a Profoto head in a 3x4' softbox camera left for fill. This is my 50mm lens at f/5.6.

Week 46: Digging Out

For consistency's sake, I'll open this week by saying - what a busy week! As I mentioned in the past post, we were fortunate to get access to some last minute Super Bowl tickets. It took some finagling, but we managed to arrange for travel, hotels, babysitters and all in a few days and take advantage. We ended up flying to Kansas City, dropping off Jonah with Grandma Carolyn and having Grandpa Jerry drive us to Dallas. He was rewarded with a ticket to the big game! Grandma was rewarded with time with Jonah! Grandma Connie and Grandpa Jack picked up Jonah on Monday morning, spent a day spoiling him and we drove back to Liberty that afternoon. All in all, I think we all had a great time.

We were a little worried about this trip with Jonah. He had stayed with Grandma and Grandpa before while we took a short trip to Chicago. However, he stayed with Grandma and Grandpa in our apartment. We weren't sure what would happen in a place that he doesn't know as well; we were particularly nervous about him transitioning to Grandma Connie and Grandpa Jack without us there. He did a great job, though! Guess that means we need to plan to get away more often.

The other part of the trip that made us uneasy was the weather. I'm sure it comes as a big surprise to hear that this winter has been particularly brutal for most everyone in the country. Between Christmas and the end of January New York City saw 60 inches of snow; so, our weather has remained dicey. A few days before we flew to KC, a big snow storm tore through the Midwest. Grandpa Jerry and Grandma Carolyn were in the spot that got the most snow from the storm in the entire State of Missouri. Lovely. They ended up with 23 inches. I assured them that that amount was little more than a dusting. . .

The one night that mom and dad stayed at Grandma and Grandpa's house, they ended up with another 2 inches overnight. Jonah was very excited to get up the next morning and help Grandpa Jerry shovel the snow. Jonah had a slight advantage over Grandpa with his big digger - while Grandpa wielded a mere shovel.

It's fun to see Jonah have such a great time with his Grandparents and to see him grow to be more and more independent.

Photo - this is a rented 16-35mm lens (HAD to have that for the Super Bowl!) at 16mm and f/8; straight sunlight bounced off 25 inches of cold white reflectors.

If you are interested - here are some more shots of the "shoveling"
http://web.me.com/rwdavi/rwdavi/Albums/Pages/Digging_Out.html

And here are some Super Bowl photos:
http://web.me.com/rwdavi/rwdavi/Albums/Pages/Super_Bowl%21.html

Week 45: Zac and Jonah!

Once again - what a week. Life has just refused to slow down around our house for the past couple of months. Hopefully sometime soon. I was stuck an extra day on a business trip this past week thanks to the 17th blizzard to hit NYC in the past month then we found out that we got tickets to the Super Bowl on Monday (!!) and have been busy making last minute travel arrangements (and buying Terrible Towels)!

Last week was dedicated to our wonderful friend and babysitter, Ms. Chiho, so this week I wanted to feature our "other" babysitter who is now "retired".  Meet Zachary! Our friends Avital and Nathan recently brought their first child into the world. I met Zac at his naming ceremony a couple of months ago, but Jonah and Kristi had not had an opportunity. We'd been trying to get together for quite awhile, but my travel schedule and Jonah's cold delayed things. This past weekend we finally coordinated all of our schedules and went for a visit.

Jonah had a great time meeting Zac. He did a great job being gentle and tried to interact a bit. Moreover, though, he enjoyed playing with Zac's truck and chasing his cats. Some things never change.

Photo - this was a quickie. Neither Jonah nor Zac were really in the mood, but we got a few shots in. This is a small flash in a reflective umbrella camera left and my 135mm lens at f/4.

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!