Our One Year Old

Remember Me? When I was a baby? I think this might have been the first pic I showed of Tessa here... Is it?

It's over!

I have been waiting a year to officially pass by before I celebrated all the things Tessa did not do to me when she was a baby. I was starting to get worried she would squeeze in a couple of these towards the end. To say Tessa was an "easy" baby is under stated... So a big THANKS to the Tangerine for making my life as a Dad less disgusting and smelly and for keeping my clothes clean from poo, pee, and puke. This girl has never: Thrown-up. Never. Not once. Her drooling phase lasted all of a week. She never shit or pissed on me during a diaper change, she has never blown out her diaper so bad that I had to change her clothes when we were out on an outing together (she did do this to Cole once). She quite literally kept all of her excrement to herself the whole first year, and I couldn't be more pleased about it. I have no idea where she gets the iron stomach from, but she has one. I'm going to suggest it is from all the breast milk and yummy baby food she ate when her stomach was figuring out how to be a stomach. Who knows, but I do feel lucky.

Hey! Look at me, I'm totally a one year old now.




"We just spoiled our daughter" is the text message I sent to Cole from the cab I was in, this was after I had just spent an hour in Tribeca at these two great kid boutiques called Shoofly and Torly Kids. Since I was going to be in NYC anyway, Cole thought it would be sweet to get Tessa her first pair of walking shoes from the big city, why not? Since I was there doing an event for Pureology, I asked my fashionable boss where she shops for her children, got some directions, and snuck away for an hour-- and literally went nuts. "What about that dress up there?" and "I better get her another pair in a bigger size for when she grows out of these." Things piled up, and next thing you know, Tessa had her first ever NYC shopping spree. We have yet to find any stores in Florida that aren't walls of pink and frill, and poorly made Disney character costumes, bleck! Don't get me wrong, we aren't looking for high fashion on a baby, we just don't like the "girl uniforms."

I flew back home late afternoon on Tessa's birthday on a solid two hours sleep from the night before (up all night editing, not partying)-- I sat next to an awful man that must have had bowling ball sized testicles because he sat with his legs blasted apart and practically on top of me, and his arms were covered in coarse long pointy black hair, it felt like someone was scrubbing my arms with a wire brush every time he would readjust and secure his elbow into my side. I just kept thinking: "make it home" and muttering my centering mantras of K.I.T. and D.G.C. (keep it together, and don't get crazy). As far as a birthday bash, we had decided not to do any kind of official birthday thing with me out of town the whole week before. Instead, we did a little photo shoot of her wearing her new digs when I got home, and we let her show off her new walking thing she does, we went to Publix and bought dinner and cake, came home, played, ate, got covered in icing, washed off the sugar in baths, and then played really hard with the children until they were sore from laughing. LB had just as much fun as Tessa, and was a big help in the candle blowing and cake eating portion of the birthday celebration.


These are the shoes I picked out for her at Shoofly, they are made by Garvalin

It's so good to be home and I can't wait to show you a sneak of some of the stuff I have been doing in NYC. I also wanted to say I am overwhelmed by the comments that have been coming in, and am just so taken aback by such sweet support and encouragement as all of this keeps growing. I apologize if you asked a ? in the comments and I did not respond, I have just not had the time and promise I am not blowing you off or ignoring you. I am just trying to get caught up, but THANK YOU, for the love in the comment section.

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

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Joyous Steps is What She takes

Dear readers of this blog, I swore I was never going to be the guy that got all posty whenever we had a major milestone here at the house, but yesterday afternoon little Tessa Tangerine took her first big walk across the floor. The best part is that Cole and I were BOTH home! Holy Crap I was nervous she was going to start strutting around when I was in the big city, and I would have to witness it via blurry cell phone pics. I was on the phone talking shop about a project when Cole starts clapping and cheering and the guy on the other end is like: "uhhhhh, what's going on?" Me: "I gotta go my baby girl is WALKING!" That's just part of the territory when you work from home with the kids in full force of growing up. I don't think there is a person I do business with that doesn't hear the kids in the background playing, it makes it feel like a family affair.

This is quite possibly the last crawling photo of Tessa I will take.


This baby walks. Goodbye baby, and hello toddler? We have a toddler?


By the time I get back home, and I walk through the door, this little girl will be a one year old, and she will walk up to me and grab my leg and say "hi" and thats important. That is why I feel sick when I am gone, and why I laugh so extra snorty hard at shitty jokes to try and feel better about how much I miss my family. Why I book my flights to return immediately. I work as hard as I can, to be around as much as I can. *tangent-- There is so much talk about this new modern man, and "new" dad thing lately, and how great it is that they love their kids, and don't treat their wives like assholes, and the whole thing is annoying to me. Fathers love their children. They love their wives. It isn't a revolution, stop trying to make it a marketing scheme. Don't turn the newly branded "emotional man" campaign into exciting new revenue streams for gender specific products like Frogurt and Capri pants. These aren't "new men", we are just living in a time where their are more voices out in the air, and a billion ways to hear them. Powerful people pick through the rubble pile, and decide the noise that they want to be the loudest, to serve trends, and goods, and services. There are just as many terrible fathers out there as there ever was, guys that think it is totally "gay" to cry when they say "I do" but it's totally cool when "Old Yellar" gets shot. Come on.

Anyone that watched the wedding video I posted yesterday all saw that man love his daughter in an epic magic way, and he barely said a thing. There have always been brilliant women, there have always been caring husbands and fathers. Tessa and LB will grow up and have both a brilliant strong woman in their life, and a dad that cherishes his family and fights time to be with them as much as possible. So the cycle will go on, just like it always has.

Keep walking lady, right past the noise, and into yourself. You see her growing up? I know you can see it. I think it's cool, I write about it, that doesn't make me anything but proud of her.






All the Love in the Universe~ Me


P.S. LB is signing "picture" in the background in that second photo.

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Love Stories- A Wedding in Seven Minutes

Lucky for me, there was a soon to be bride that reads here in this space, and she took a chance and asked that I please make some vignettes of her wedding. I agreed. I was nervous because her husband is a talented man in the production world, and after meeting with him... I was even more nervous to do the job. I pulled myself together and set out to do the best I could. This is the job that really made me fall in love with shooting video, and I couldn't have had better subjects to shoot. I wanted to share the results here. So thanks to David and Stacey for letting me show off their day.

What I really loved about this project was realizing you can tell the wedding story with video, and it does not have to be 2 hours of static tripod shots and shout outs from friends and family. I am certainly not against "shout outs" for the memory pile, but I feel like for the bride and groom, their day goes by so fast that I wanted to slow it down for them and really zero in on the love in their faces. The little things, like I couldn't get over how much you could tell that she loved her husband just by watching how she held his hands. I mean you can tell her smile fuels this guys heart. It was a really great experience shooting this for them. They were married in May and they just avoided the real super hot heat that arrived a week after. However, it couldn't be a Florida wedding without some fans flapping. Love it.

*A side note- The groom wrote his bride a beautiful wedding march to walk down the aisle to, and it is so gorgeous that I had to use it in this for them. The second song is a really talented fellow out of the Sunshine State that goes by Radical Face and his song is called 'Welcome Home" I chose it because this song makes me think about leaving behind your past failures, and slipping back to the calm and comfort of home. When I saw both of these families interact with one another it felt like they were very much home. Do yourselves a favor and treat yourself to his album that is out. You will not be sad.

Out of curiosity... if you had a video of your wedding made, how many times have you watched it since you were married? Do you break it out at anniversary time? I really wish Cole and I had something from our wedding. Love the people that give out the super 8 cameras to friends. genius idea.

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

P.S. I am going to be working in the land of Papya Hotdogs and Pineapple shakes for a spell, so I am going to have to leave this space for a few. Shouldn't be too long. I am excited to show off the job I am doing when I get back. AND it will be Tessa's FIRST birthday! Can you tell I'm excited for this milestone.

P.P.S. I also would be a fool not to mention that if you are interested at all in a video like this one for any of you soon to be married people. Please, feel free to hit my blogger profile and shoot me an email. I would love to keep doing these. Keep in mind-- I will travel, especially to Tokyo :)

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A Devourer of Corn

WORMS!!!!

You might look at this picture taken on the first day of boiling hot skin searing summer and think-- boy, that looks like some pretty shitty corn, and you would be right in thinking that. All of the ears of corn, that sat perched up along the stalks looked happy and healthy as they progressed, I did not see any tell-tale signs of any bug feasting infestation. It must have happened the week I was on my Gulf Coast trip. As soon as I let up, and the heat and afternoon rains set in ahead of schedule, they snuck into the garden and into the corn. This was my 3rd attempt at growing corn and this was the closest I actually got to harvest. I used an organic product called spinosad, anyone heard of this stuff? Have any luck? From everything I read, and from what I could tell during morning inspections, I thought we had it made this time around. Back to the drawing board. A summer homegrown corn boil with some cow sized steaks are still in my future. Anyone have any luck growing corn in Florida this year?

I realized taking this picture of our ruined crop, that I hadn't taken pictures of Cole in forever, and so I will remedy that. I apologize for the nasty worm invader photo, but I have to share the carnage along with the triumphs. I can't just go around blogging about gardening without showing the disasters along the way. I have my fingers crossed I will be showing off some cantaloupes on here at some point, but man is it hot this year.

Any good ideas for things to plant during these ridiculously hot months? I might just skip planting and work on building the soil up for another year. Why doesn't that sound fun at all?

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

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The Last Moments of 57 Hours

* I know I had promised the final picture in the 'Walk to 40 Weeks" series for this morning, but honestly these afternoon FL rain storms have made it impossible for us so far. So, while we wait for the right window to get this last portrait done, I have something special to show you...

Trish and Peter invited me to take pictures of the birth of Leo, and I was so honored to be there. I brought along the Canon 7D I had just rented out for a job that I had to do later in the week, and so I was lucky to have it on hand, and was able to make some video of Leo's birth. Now, before you watch this video, I wanted to point out 3 important things:

1. Trish was in labor for a total of 57 hours, she was on just a few minutes of sleep that she caught between contractions. Things moved slow, but progress was being made. She listened to her body, stayed in tune, and went along for the ride. She just did the work.

2. There is a scene in this video where you can see Peter cry a little, and Trish is smiling and euphoric. What you can't see is that Leo had his head all the way out at this point, and he was looking around, and both Peter and Trish had just held his little head, they had both just looked at his face for the first time, and so they knew that he was almost out, just one big push to go. It was incredible to watch how calm Trish remained while she waited for that last contraction that would bring Leo into their arms.

3. The song that is playing over the top of this footage is by: Devendra Banhart and called "Long Haired Child" The reason I selected this track was because Peter had set aside some of Trish's favorite records to listen to while she was in active labor. Towards the end, the midwife assistant in attendance noticed there was no music, and randomly put this record on, this was like the 5th track in, and it started playing right when the pushing got really intense. You can hear it in the background when the video switches to the natural audio. One of those moments where the right song finds the perfect moment, and it lays down behind it, and makes it a little more magic.

Thanks so much to Trish and Peter for letting me show how powerful love is.

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

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An Early Fathers Day Gift

It's a prelabation!

Nobody likes to pre-celebrate a "holiday" more than I do. So I am raining gifts down on myself all week long leading up to Fathers Day. ALL week! Nothing excessive, none of the jackass "dadvertsing" items screaming through the TV for the last month between NBA games and Rambo marathons. I don't want Dockers, or some odd shaped power tool that allows me to hammer in the craziest of corners, or 100lbs of Omaha steak-- I just want a little extra time in the mornings and at night to spend with Cole and the kids. So the rest of the week, I am not touching this blog, and will actually assign hours to how long I will edit for. A real strict 9-5 kind of thing, rather than sitting endlessly in front of Final Cut and CS4 until my eyes close. I have an entire terabyte drive filled to the brim of raw clips that need to be assembled, and I intend to have it all finished up and the jobs delivered, so that by the time Fathers Day actually rolls in, I will be all finished with everything I have in the queue.

If you have been reading here for long, you know I am fond of taking breathers from this space, it keeps things healthy. When I come back I will have a whole heap of new stuff to share from jobs I have been doing. For the super awesome people that have been following along with "The Walk to 40 Weeks" you will get to see the last piece in that series (starring baby Leo), and I will be talking through the brand new and very last maternity series that I am going to feature here. I figure 3 will round it out nicely and be enough. It will definitely make for a huge challenge to come up with something brand spanking new. I keep seeing copy cats popping up around the net from Cole's series, and even the Walk to 40, some are doing the copying quite well, and some are just terrible... but rather than rip myself off, I am going to try hard to come up with another idea. I lucked into another stunning subject, and am going to start lining up some clothes for the series now. It would be amazing to have an actual budget one of these days, lights, wardrobe, stylists, (oh to be Annie Leibovitz) so until then-- I am going to take this last one the other direction and keep it gritty and raw. I'm talking about it too much already, which means I'm excited :)

Also when I get back, we need to all focus on promoting and word spreading the long squawked about Charity Album that was put together for The Littlest Buddy (going on a year now). So many of you signed up for the "web storm" campaign, and when this album is out for sale, this will truly be the greatest thing I have ever done in my life. I am so excited to be able to do this for the SMS community, to not only raise some much needed funds, but raise the level of awareness about Smith Magenis Syndrome.

SO, I will FINALLY be announcing the release date, the name of the album, and show off the art that the brilliant Anna Bond from Rifle Design has created for it. I have been begging and convincing artists that I have worked with in the past to write original songs for a kids album, and finally have 13 little gems all assembled and ready to go for this very first album. I am hoping that after this one is out, and the word spreads, it will get easier each year to get artists involved. The list of bands that I wrote to was insane. I wasn't able to convince any big bright shiny pop stars to help out this year, but am convinced that I will eventually wear someone down with my letter writing. Take the ol' Andy Dufresne approach to getting what you want. I mean I asked everyone, from ridiculous pipe dreams like Frank Black, to the more accessible candidates like, Au Revoir Simone (can you imagine Frank Black doing a kids song, it would be gold). Now to be fair, when I say I wrote to these bands, I wrote to their management, and publicists, and they were the ones that didn't bother to write back or respond. I am sure they are inundated with requests for all kinds of things, but a little automatic blanket response would have felt better than the "cold tony" I received from everyone.

The last little house cleaning note I have, is to explain that when I went to the Gulf Coast these last two trips, and was actually there on assignment, I had never had to point my camera at anything as serious and heavy before. There were points on this trip that truly shut me down, and in order to get the stories and images I wanted, I had to let all of this madness inside of me. I am taken right now, by the people of the coast and the fight they are facing. I am going back many more times, and following up with folks that have touched my life, and also digging deeper, because I'm mad. I can't believe this is all unfolding the way it is. I know people come here for a glimpse into a happy family, and to see the gorgeousness of pregnancy unfold, I appreciate what this blog is, and how it evolved, but I am absolutely going to keep pursuing the stories I think need to be told. So for those of you that hide your face when the ugliness and brutal shades of real life pop up here, I do apologize as it seems out of place and abrupt, but this is where my head is right now. So this is where my head is going. You can ignore it, or dig deeper with me.

So, I am off for a week, and plan to enjoy all the little things each day with the kids and Cole, and get a ton of work off my plate so that I can bring a bunch of new energy to this space.

Until then...

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

P.S. I wish I could explain the joy I just witnessed by LB walking down the hall in his new pair of summer flip flops, and with every little rubber squishy smack into the bottom of his foot, he would delight and smile like nothing I can put into words. So to explain myself even clearer when I say I am giving myself the gift of "time" this week, it is to do things like soak up the little things like LB's face reacting to the flip-flop smack, or Tessa awe struck over her first bubble bath, or her first pair of yoda ears, or Cole and I getting the kids to bed, the house all clean, and "going to bed" early every night.

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The Peach Tree Giveth

Tessa is on the fast track to being called a one year old (18 days now), and along with her first stumbly step attempts, and the beginnings of finding her voice, her peach tree we planted just after she was born is responding to all this summer rain-- it has pushed all of its magic from its roots into the fruit, and we have a tree full of ripe delicious peaches.

We decided that for her first birthday we would get the original crew together that welcomed her into the world, and just sit down over some food, have a laugh, and marvel over Tessa. We were going to make peach cobbler for her birthday dessert from her tree, but we can't stop eating them they are so good, and now we don't have enough. So disgusting irresistible sugar whipped cake frosting it is. Cole can't resist the fun in seeing her little face covered in cake for the first time. LB has been practicing singing "Happy Birthday" and so we are all set. There is no stopping it, Tessa is going to be One!

can you tell how tan she is getting? We keep her coated with sun block around the clock, and she is still turning FL brown

What do you buy a one year old? What do you think Suri Cruise got for her first birthday....the Ferrari Go-Cart? I wanted to buy Tessa one of those rainbow inflatable walker things to bump into the house with, but the man at the store said they are bad for kids, that people freaked out about them two decades ago, and so they stopped making them. Where have I been? So what do you buy a one year old? I am opening the comments to suggestions, and links, spam, and shameless plugs. Send links to adorable outfits this way :) Is it time for a pony? What age do they get a pony?

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

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By: Ryan Marshall

My buddy Mike and I drove over 2,000 miles running back and forth up the Gulf of Mexico chasing stories and meeting faces and places last week. Southern hospitality was in full effect and there were very few exceptions along the way. In the face of any disaster it brings out whatever you have churning in your belly the brightest, and for some people it isn't always a beacon of hope and light, it is ugly and selfish and short sighted. One of my favorite sayings, and one I happen to really believe is: "Money makes good people better, and bad people worse." and with all of this BP money up for grabs in the region, and a black wave inching up the Gulf crippling life in its path, there are for sure some desperate times ahead. I walked away from almost all of the interviews I did just completely bewildered, it was always a surprise at how an individual decides to process hardship. I kept finding that the people with the least to lose were the ones that had been drunk for the last 42 days, and the people with the most to lose were working the hardest and holding hope for their community with no real ill-will toward BP. Is it just the idea that when you don't have much to begin with, you can easily let it go?

Coming home to Florida I had 9 hours in a car with a case of a stomach bug, and a bad head cold, and many, MANY, emergency pit stops on the way. I was so excited to get home, but I felt strange for leaving what I just saw. There was a sense of incompleteness. So many more stories to tell. Literally as we drove back, Mississippi and Alabama were being hit with oil for the first time, and for all of the optimism and hope we were met with in Florida, that oil was just 48 hours away from hitting Pensacola.

So for the first time ever, I sat down with my notes, and taped interviews, and dug through the photos from the trip, and I wrote a story for the news blog Fast Company-- and this is what came out of me along with the guidance of the super talented editor Tyler Gray. I can't tell you how great it was to be able to have mini melt downs on the phone with someone, and have him reel me back in and get my feet back on earth. In addition I sent in a collection of my photos from the trip of the people I spoke with, and the places we stood in (VIEW PHOTO ESSAY HERE). I was thrilled to have this opportunity from Fast Company and so with the chance to reach a larger audience, I wanted to be sure I was talking about something more than tar balls on the beach, and not just shouting about losing a way of life. For anyone interested in reading my first piece for FC please take a READ HERE. I'm not sure when I am going back, but I know I'm going back. I have to go back, all of this got inside me, and there is too much to tell.


Judy wears a tattoo on her hand to honor her late husband who died almost two years ago in the bay just behind her. She continues her husbands independent shrimping business with her two sons. Her husband died when his boat capsized, and he was trapped in the cabin, he drowned with his dog. Her sons have been shrimping almost non-stop since the sinking of the Deepwater Horizon now 49 days ago. As the oil drifts closer, the only life they have known is about to be off-limits.


This is Theodore, he decided it would be best for him to sit tight and drink everyday, and collect his claims checks from BP. He insisted that he hold this snare hook for the pictures because he wanted to give us a "good shot." It was a little unsettling to have this hook being waved around so close to my head as he would rant on the deck of the boat about the spill. When he asked what I was going to be using his picture for, I let him know it would be on the internet, he said: "I was on the internet last week, some son-of-a-bitch put me on the internet when they found me passed out in the parking lot!" I have not been able to locate him on You Tube yet. But I am searching.

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

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The Walk is Over!

Taking a breather in between pushes... The last moments it was just the two of them, tender, emotional, amazing.

Trish and Peter who I have featured here for the last many Mondays in the Walk to 40 Weeks series, are the proud parents to a healthy little Leo, he arrived at 10:41 AM Sunday June, 6 in their home, in water, exactly as Trish had wanted to have her baby. It was a successful home-birth with no complications during delivery. It was a long labor and Trish slugged it out with her support team for well over 50 some hours. She was incredible as was everyone she had surrounded herself with. With respect to Peter and Trish I do not want to over-share their moment, it was such a privilege for them to invite me into their home to share in this experience, and holy cow it was amazing to get to document this for them.

Once they have settled in, and really soaked in their experience I will see what glimpse I can show from the birth of Leo. Until then...

All the Love in the Universe~ Me

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Tessa Heart

Home is where the heart is (literally).

Did I ever tell you about the freckle on Tessa's arm that is shaped like a heart? She has a heart freckle! Maybe someday she will show up on some remote island and the natives will see "the mark" on her arm. "She wears the mark!!" It's her. And she will be some super awesome Goddess that can wield terrible power.

Soon after Tessa was born, friends from American Apparel sent us a bunch of cool little clothes for Tessa to wear, most of them were too big at the time, and we keep them kind of waiting in the wings, this Sesame Street onsie was one of the biggest pieces they sent. when I got home from this trip she looked like a giant. So this morning I grabbed it to see, and it fit. I mean just one week, and she can join the WNBA?!

I mean, she has a heart freckle, are you serious...

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

P.S. My buddy Mike, that went on the photo trip with me up the GUlf Coast shot video while I worked on stills and stories, today Fast Company posted video from our trip. Take a look HERE.

P.S.S. I realized today driving in the car with Cole that after being in the towns being hit by this oil and seeing how bleak their situation is, that I had to be around some kind of positive force today. I needed to feel good. Thank the Universe I have this family.

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Pictures from the Gulf coast (Memorial Day Weekend)

Ryan is coming home from Louisiana today and some of the pictures from his trip were featured on Fast Co. today. I thought that you all would be interested in seeing what he has been up to while he has been away.

I have been super busy keeping these kids busy, and making sure that they don't have to worry about things like oil spills and the like before they have to. LB grew some wings and learned to swim yesterday. It surely isn't pretty, but it is amazing! Tessa might have tried to walk, but I kept sitting her down, because I can't have all that happening while Ryan is out of town. Alright, I have got to get off of here and finish up around the house before the Tangerine wakes up.
<3
Cole

A young Grand Isle, LA resident makes the best of a bad situation on Memorial Day. A small portion of the beach was open to the public, while official BP spill workers continued cleaning efforts along the shoreline.
Please click through to view full SLIDE SHOW on Fast Company

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