November 5, 2009

How Is LB?

The Littlest Buddy is doing just fine and thanks for asking :)





Tessa fell in love with the Littlest Buddy late last week, and now literally every single time he stands in front of her and does anything, she erupts into a laughing hysteria that we have never heard. The Littlest Buddy with almost no effort at all has won rights to who can make Tessa laugh the hardest. Prior to this discovery of how hilarious he is, he pretty much pretended she didn't exist. Within just the past 48 hours we have seen the two of them begin to bond. It feels so good.

And just to keep things rolling and updated the charity album that I previewed here, that I am putting together to raise awareness and funds to further the research into Smith Magenis Syndrome is moving along a little faster now. Who knew putting an album together for charity would be so challenging. Some wonderful news to go with the album: the talented and inspiring Anna Bond is involved and donating her time and talents into creating a limited edition print inspired by the album cover art. It will be for sale when the album launches later this fall-- proceeds will also go to the charity in addition to the music sales. Do yourself the favor if you haven't and check her work out. I am still pressing for a release before the new year.

All the Love in the Universe ~ me

November 4, 2009

A Boob Break

What the Hell is this crap?!"





We waited 4 months before Tessa got a taste of anything other than good old fashioned nutritious breast milk. After this test run, we give her a little of this oaty gruel once a day along with the boob milk. We weren't sure how she would react to the food and she surprised us with no reaction at all. Way to go little girl, new things are no big deal.

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

It's Just a Hand And a Foot

In the process of trying to turn things around during this shitty economy's shit storm and burst into the uber competitive photography world, I have especially been self conscious around my father in law when it comes to updating him on any good news or cool new jobs. It was just a month after Cole and I married that I lost a giant pile of work that we had been planning on getting us thru a good part of last year. I have been trying to get back to that same safe place ever since. So when I was asked to contribute to the Nov issue of Babytalk magazine I was happy to oblige, looked at it as a step in the right direction, and sent in a set of pictures for a piece on attachment parenting. I was excited to show the work off to my father in law. My own parents always react the same to any news of work that I tell them about, if it is a writing piece they ask: "Did you use bad language?" and if it is a photo job they say: "That actually looks... pretty good." Cole's father has that big super WOW reaction when he gets really impressed. So it is always fun to wow him with good news. I had been given an early proof of the article and so one day when he was visiting I casually say from the kitchen: "Oh yeah-- Cole and Tessa are in a magazine next month." to which he seems excited 'Really?!" he says. I ask: "Wanna see what it will look like?" I mean I am ready for some high fives and encouragement. I pull up the tear sheets-- and he takes a long look-- and pauses. (Such an awkward pause) and he says: "This is just a hand and a foot!"

haha.

I am not sure if anyone out there can help me, but I am convinced he is not going to be happy until he sees Cole riding piggyback on Oprah like a couple of best friends on the cover of "O"

But for now, he will have to settle with showing his friends a hand and a foot for awhile. I will keep plugging away. Thanks a million to Babytalk for the piece. And if you haven't picked it up... PICK IT UP! I loved the pictures from the set and was super happy with the one they picked out. I love that hand and foot so much.




all the Love in the Universe ~ Me

November 3, 2009

Keeping it Candid (a wedding)

I have always been very shy about shooting a wedding for someone ever since I made an attempt a couple years back and screwed up royally. It was a dark time in my budding photography confidence. There is just something about the responsibility involved that terrifies me. To capture all that goes on within a few hours and make sure everyone is looking super awesome and perfect, and well... I just fall apart. Recently I did finally agree to shoot a wedding for a friend, only because they had another photographer in place to shoot all of the formal portraits and poses, and the list of things that the mother of the bride wanted captured. So yeah. No stress on me. And I get to do the one thing I love to do, hang back, sneak around and capture things as they unfold. I am not sure how I feel about taking on a wedding solo. I don't think that I could, my hat goes off to the pros that do it, and do it well, but I did realize that I really love taking on the second shooter role and shooting candid moments. So now I guess I just need to find someone that wants to do all the stressful bulk of the work and partner up. Any takers?

So here are some of my favorite moments from that day.

I have known the groom Matt since he was drinking underage at the bar I worked at and I booked his bands for the good part of 8 years. It was awesome to see all of the familiar faces at the reception, and then I realized that I was the old guy that got everyone drunk and made sure their bands had a place to play, and now they are growing up and still being creative and awesome and holding on to creative pursuits. Made me happy-- and I was really glad that Matt & Mellisa asked me to be a part of their day ( even though it was 96 degrees in October and I soaked thru two shirts) They were both heroes for never bitching a second about the heat and sweat and were both so in love and inspiring. They beat the heat. It was amazing.

My favorite part of the day was watching the two doors of the ready rooms. Matt & Mellisa were right next door to one another getting ready and had no idea what the other was doing or how they looked and it was awesome to see how close they were the entire time.



















All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

Back Stage At A Hair Show

From time to time I get a call to do some shooting work for Redken and this past week they had a show in town, and I went in and shot the event for them. And I thought it might be interesting to show of some of the photos from the event here. One of my favorite things to do when I do work for them is to camp out in the model room and take candid behind the scenes photos of their back stage prep work. I truly love to shoot work of people in a moment focused and in action, and I always love the juxtaposition of the model in the chair completely oblivious to what is happening on top of her head, the stylists are so focused on the work they are doing, and the models are so focused on what the hell their hair must look like in the picture that i am taking, it creates this great tension. A great mix of awkward, excited, and focused. So here are some of my favorite shots from back stage that I am excited to share...














doing a little on the fly choreography





All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

November 2, 2009

Five Pictures From Our Halloween

I have been keeping my camera put away lately because when I have it in my hands I feel THIS far away from my family and not really involved. It is hard to find that perfect balance between taking a few shots and a thousand. Anyone else going thru this? I have this fear of the kids smashing my camera on the ground at an intervention and saying they want me back! "we just want you Dad!"



I did get a few shots to remember our first halloween with Tessa. She was the same calm and curious as usual, and she wouldn't keep her little hand off the pumpkin when she was near it. She was pretty mesmerized by it. Cole took up carving duties and drew out face options on our chalkboard for LB to pick from. The Littlest Buddy has been continuing his new tradition of playing dead man, going limp and being drug around from room to room. He however put this game to rest when he had to go door to door for candy. He was a mummy this year (continuing the tradition of classic monsters.) The Tangerine was a spooky ghost face. Cole painted her face like a deer and made her hair into little antlers for our deer hunting neighbors benefit. I don't think he got it. It was a gross 90 degrees and the whole neighborhood was a sweaty mess. It just didn't feel very spooky when it was so hot out. We ate way WAY too much junk food and LB had his yearly sugar explosion and peddled thru the streets on his tricycle. He is finally learning how to steer. So close. He almost has it. So Halloween was a success.






All the Love in the Universe ~ Us

Missing The Birth

It was a few days after Tessa Tangerine was born, Cole and I were all huddled up in our bed, jaw dropped, pouring over photos that we had just received of our little baby girl's birth. We had her birth story in pictures, it was a gift from our friend Gabi who had come in the middle of the night, slipped into the back of our house, and captured these once in a lifetime moments where we all met the Tangerine for the first time. Gabi was invisible, (with the one exception being when she shouted "Oh My GOD!" after seeing the limits of the vagina being tested when the baby crowned) we all still laugh about that moment now. I was so worried about Cole getting annoyed with bright lights flashing in her face that I told Gabi not to use her flash, not even thinking that our room was lit only by a single 60-watt light bulb stuck in a dumb lamp on a dresser-- so I pretty much tied her hands as far as being able to capture sharp clean images. I know, I know, I'm an idiot. But what came thru in the pictures despite the technical challenges were so powerful, these were our memories, all of Cole's hard work had been captured in these photos. I am so incredibly grateful that we have them. Cole and I still laugh at how naive we were to think that I would be running around firing off pictures of the baby being born. I had these grand images in my head about how super awesome it was going to be to photograph the baby in Cole's arms for the first time. I had no idea while I was dreaming up shots, that in reality I would be pinned to the side of a birth pool, hanging onto Cole who was so tired she could barely keep herself up out of the water. I way underestimated my level of participation, clouded by the millions of images depicting expectant fathers standing around saying "puuuuush" and trying not to pass out.

I had my mind blown by the amount of emotion in these images that we had received, I remember just staring at them and being able to hear every gasp, and feel my heart pounding in these moments all over again. I knew that I wanted to capture these moments for other expecting parents. I wanted to be in the thick of all that emotion and anticipation to where nobody even sees you they are so locked into one another. I wanted to do this. It was a light bulb moment of "this is what I am supposed to do." I just kept thinking about it for days, and just as soon as I could I took that little spark of interest and fanned the flames until I had enough fire to convince our midwife to find a couple that would be interested in having me document their birth. I wasn't sure what she could say because I have never documented a birth for anyone before, and only have the images of my family to show for work. She is super terrific, and so of course she did find an interested couple. I drove out with Cole and the baby and we all met one another. We swapped stories a bit, got comfortable, laughed, they had an adorable little girl already that was so interested in Tessa and you could just tell she was going to be a great big sister. We talked about their birth plan, and due date, and swapped numbers. I had never done this before, but from having just gone thru the experience of a home birth I knew my number one rule would be to never disrupt the intimacy and calm that is present within the experience. That was it, I would figure the rest out as I went.

And then I waited- and waited- and It was an interesting feeling to be "on call." As her due date approached I felt real actual nerves for someone else stirring in me. I got a call. It was last Monday. She thought it might be baby time. So I packed my gear, got dressed, and fell asleep on the couch with my phone in hand, waiting for the call to come and document this moment. They lived about an hour away. So of course I was worried about the timing of it all. Next thing I knew it was morning, The littlest Buddy was running around the hall harassing the morning calm and no baby call had come. So I went into wait mode. A week went by, a hard week of contractions and waiting from what I was told. I could hear the tired come thru the phone when I would get updates. Then finally last night I got the call, and repeated the steps: readied myself and the gear, and went to sleep with the phone in my hand. At about midnight I got the final call to head that way and I tore off down the highway, it took me 45 minutes to get there. I grabbed my bag, and ran up the stairs...

I knew as soon as I walked in that I had missed it, I heard the voice of a proud happy new dad on the phone sharing good news with his family, the kitchen was buzzing with clean up efforts. I had missed it by about 20 minutes. So totally bummed! Second babies have a way of really moving fast once the mama hits 10cm and there was no slowing down for this baby. It feels so strange to walk into a room so charged with emotion. I felt totally out of place. It's like walking in on the end of a really hard belly laugh and asking: "what's so funny?" ( I did take note how surprisingly clean their birth pool was compared to ours-- our room looked like a murder scene in comparison.) Things had gone very well for them. They had a smooth delivery and everyone was happy and safe. As much as I was bummed that I missed the hard work and the big moment, I did get there in time to capture the first time their little girl met the baby. It was their very first time they were all together as a family, watching their little girl figure out what she thought of this new person and hearing her say: "hi baby" for the first time was pretty incredible.



* A side note

Having never been in any other birth setting before-- besides the home birth setting-- I am not sure if this is solely unique to that experience or not, but I loved seeing how much time the dad got to bond with his baby boy right away. It was the same way for me, and I know how much I appreciated it. Anytime mama was being cared for, that daddy had the baby snug in his arms and he was just totally exposed. It is so amazing to watch someone fall in love, and it was so amplified watching it thru the lens. It floored me.



( I was so very grateful that I got to spend so much time with Tessa when she was all tiny blinks and wiggles.) Those minutes come and go so quickly and then they are gone forever, I hate the idea that I might have missed that if she was being whisked away by a nurse. Part of me thinks ahead to when she is older and really testing the limits to sanity and reason and it will be these moments we first shared when she was tiny and precious, and so vulnerable that will cave me into letting her have her way.

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

October 27, 2009

3 Minutes of Tummy Time

I recently had a friend in town armed with a video camera for a job we were doing together this past weekend-- and so while he was here and had a chance to meet the family, Cole and I asked him to pretty please make a quick video so we could remember Tessa at this wiggly age. She is almost 4 months and has been teething and drooling and being all around adorable. Tessa was sure to let all of us know when she was sick of being filmed with her signature scream/cry. Notice the subtle differences in how Cole and I approach the constant drooling going on. Cole takes more of a hands on approach than I do. So yeah here is 3 minutes of Tummy Time and to make it even sweeter I was given the go ahead by our friends Rabbit to use an unreleased song that will be coming out on their new album "Connect The Dots." We have been playing their new album to The Tangerine for the last few weeks in the car and it has kept her from having any "I'm trapped in a car in my stupid car seat" freak outs.








All the Love in the Universe ~ Us