Oh Come All Ye Faithful
Cousin’s nativity in Snow Canyon, UT.
Merry Christmas!
Give Thanks…
For the little things.
Little League World Series
No, I am not there shooting. But I wish I was. I am convinced the LLWS is the best sporting event on tv. ESPN is starting to figure this out as well, and instead of just showing the two championship games, they have started to show games from the Regionals as well. If you haven’t seen any, you should sit back and enjoy a game. No million dollar contracts, no agents, no owners getting divorced and threatening the solvency of the team, no Terrelle Pryor (or Cam Newton, or University of Miami) scandals, just a bunch of kids having fun, trying their best to win. So in honor of the LLWS, here are a few good shots from this past season:
I like a kid who doesn’t get cheated when he goes up to swing the bat
Remember kids, when bunting, keep the barrel above the handle:
I love this last picture for a few reasons. One, a play at the plate is always exciting. The crowd collectively holds their breath until it is over. Two, we don’t know if he held until to the ball or not. And by we, I me, you, because I actually do know. And three, I love the size discrepancy between the runner and the catcher. This is pretty unique to the Majors age division, where you can have 12 year old men playing with 11 year old boys. Some of the kids in the LLWS are topping 2 bills. That is a lot of Wheaties. The catcher in this instance doesn’t seem to mind as he is focused on nothing but making the play.
Two of a Kind
Quite possibly the coolest twins in the world. Definitely the coolest in my social circle.
The Fleming Family
The Flemings are a pure beach family who stay tan year round and have a tractor beam that pulls them to the water. It took a lot of exaggerated storytelling on my part to convince them that there are locations for a family photo shoot in Orange County other than the beach. These shots are a few of what resulted.
The Circle of Life
A few weeks ago I noticed a bird had built its nest in a planter hanging on my front porch wall. Had I noticed it sooner, I would have removed it, because the last thing I want is bird poop all over my porch and planter. However, by the time I noticed the nest, it already had several eggs lying in the bottom of it. Now while I may be slightly cold hearted, I am not so cold hearted as to throw out a bunch of eggs with a nest under the disapproving watchful eye of the mother bird. So for the next few weeks, the children would step on stools to peak into the nest (it was about 5 feet off the ground) and anyone approaching or leaving our front door would get their tower buzzed as the momma bird would hastily vacate her nest. I couldn’t imagine how the eggs were sat on enough to hatch seeing as the mom was constantly buzzing, but I didn’t feel bad about that because it would appear to be Darwin at work that a mom without better nest building sense didn’t evolutionarily deserve to breed.
Last Saturday I peaked into the nest to see how the eggs were doing, and the picture above was what greeted me. A bird was hatched and a second was on its way. There is a certain miracle in watching new life takes its first breath into the world. I watched for a little as more and more of the birds hatched. Over the next week our family was more cautious with the use of the front door and tried to go in and out of the house through the garage so the mom wouldn’t have to leave as often. We we witnessed the birds change from skinny, fleshy little things no bigger than the tip of my thumb to furry animals twice as big. Toward the end of the week, I noticed that I hadn’t seen the mom in a while. Days went by without me seeing her in the nest or leaving when I approached. I started to wonder what I would do if a car or a cat or a hawk or who knows what else got the mom when she was out and about. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be cuisinarting worms any time soon, but at the same time, if they just started to chirp and cry incessantly on my porch I wasn’t sure how long I would be able to take that. Friday night I went to bed late, and before heading upstairs, I turned on the porch light to peak through the glass at the nest. Sure enough, there was the momma bird sitting on the nest. Disaster had been averted and I went to bed peacefully.
The following morning, I awoke early to go on a bike ride. I opened the front door, and noticed the planter’s box all askew and the nest laying on the ground. The only evidence that baby birds had once inhabited it were the blood smears on the ground, and little bits of unrecognizable something that were quickly being covered with and carried away by ants.
My neighbor’s cat is the primary suspect, and while I respect his apparent vertical leap despite his rather rotund appearance, if I ever see him in the middle of the road, I hope I have the self control to not accelerate.
By the way, I am not sure if this makes me a bad man or not, but I told the kids the birdies grew up and flew away.
In Too Deep
My first thoughts on how to use an underwater housing was pictures of my buddies surfing or pictures from our spear fishing outings. When Jane, Kristine, and Shauna saw the underwater housing, their first thought was some episode of America’s Next Top Model. So away we went to the HOA pool late at night for some quasi-model underwater portraits. The night shots were actually lit from the underwater pool light, which was brighter than I figured it would be. Shooting underwater is really a fun experience. You have a lot less control with things like posing and set up, and if you are the subject, keeping your eyes both open and normal looking can be a challenge. The lighting also plays differently than in the air, but it is cool how it bounces and reflects in so many different patterns. And I know the Jungle Cruise has been saying it for years, but the back side of water really is cool. I have a few more ideas I am going to try over spring break, and as I fully recognize that I have no original ideas, let me know what you think would be a cool underwater set up.
Let it Snow. Let it Snow. Let it Snow.
Prior to last weekend, 80% of my children had never seen snow. This despite the fact that my parents live amongst the “greatest snow on earth”. I know, I know; I am a neglectful parent. Every year my wife suggests that we should “get them into skiing”. I explain that we don’t live 6 miles from the beach so that we can “get into” a sport that requires substantial time and financial investment every time I want to participate. Not to mention having to travel to the exact kind of weather that you live in Southern California to avoid. I sort of compromised and I rectified the situation with some golf course sledding in Park City. Their aunt may have earned aunt of the year status (more likely aunt of the week - its tough competition) for her constant running up and down the hill with them. Snow shooting is tougher than it looks - at least for me. I had to shoot manual mode (normally I like aperture priority) and ignore the camera settings. I don’t think the camera knew what to do with all the “white”. I chose to make sure the faces were properly exposed and allow the snow to be blown out. The kids were as happy as could be. My son claimed this was “the best day of his life”. Personally, I thought he would have given a little more props to the day I let him skip school to watch Kelly Slater at a surf contest. But I guess I got parental kudos nonetheless.
Play Ball!
My first introduction to organized softball was during my freshman year of college when a pitcher from the softball team decided she had enough of the baseball players making fun of her. She challenged several of my teammates and me to walk out to the field and see if we could hit her. No big deal to hit off a girl, right? None of us even touched the ball. Quite humbling. I now have three daughters, one of whom likes to play softball and has introduced me to the league here. The league does a great job of really establishing a community for these girls to be a part. The opening ceremonies are always a very big deal. The girls pick the name of the team, and then have a parade, where they dress in the theme of their team. Many of the girls (and their coaches) really go all out. There were Twilight vampires, cows, “cereal killers” and several others. My favorite part of the tradition may be the email that goes out the week before reminding all the teams that silly string is strictly “not permitted”.
Brian and Amber Got Married
She is a public defender, he is a bailiff. And if a criminal courthouse isn’t the best place to fall in love, I don’t know what is. The funny thing about photographing weddings is how you spend so much more time with the bride and groom then their closest friends and family on such an important day. It really creates a unique bond. I shot this wedding with Shauna who provided a creative element that I couldn’t have replaced. She likes to point out that all the really good pictures, she posed. Brian and Amber chose to be married at sunset at the Casa Romantica in San Clemente, and it couldn’t have been a better setting. Rain threatened all day, but the clouds moved out of the way for the ceremony and the reception, and only showed up after the party ended. That has to be a good sign, right?
