Grace

I've been waiting months to write this post!

A few months back, Feb 3rd actually, someone on twitter made sure that I saw a tweet from big time blogger Grace Bonney of Design Sponge fame, she was asking for suggestions for videographers. Grace was on the hunt for someone to help her make a book trailer for her brand new super awesome big thick 400 page beautifully made design book called: Design Sponge At Home (it is being put out by Artisan in September). So I got brave and piped up, threw my hat in the ring, and asked people on twitter to pretty please let Grace know I was the right man for the job, and guess what? So many people got in her ear about me, that she actually took a look at some of the video work I have done, and she took a chance on me. I was so excited, Design Sponge is a favorite blog of Cole's so it was pretty exciting to get the email from Grace saying-- "please tell everyone on twitter to stop bugging me about you!" I'm kidding. Grace wrote and said hi, and a month later I am standing in her Apartment in Brooklyn with a camera, and we marched all over NYC, went into some incredible houses, tackled some at home DIY projects, and made one helluva a great trailer for her book.

I am so excited to finally show this video off. Posted below are some screen shots from the trailer, a teaser for the teaser. So today if you could do me a huge favor and head over to Design Sponge and take a look at the video it would mean a bunch. This was the first project like this that anyone has let me get my hands on, and I can't tell you enough how much fun it was to make.

So head on over to Design Sponge today and take a look at the trailer, and also get loads of good info on the book, it's release, and find out even more about what is going to be inside of it. Big huge thanks to Grace and Amy for being such great hosts, for letting me make this, and for showing me amazing sites in NYC. Grace took a chance with me and trusted me to capture her heart that she had put into this book, and I will never forget her for that. So excited for her and her entire team over at Design Sponge. The book is gorgeous. Go check it out.

click HERE to see the trailer. AND P.S. If you have time tell Grace and everyone at Design Sponge a big congrats on making such a great book.

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I Love The Smell of Chlorine and Sunblock in the Morning

it smells like victory.

Did you know Tessa turns TWO on Wednesday?! How exciting to have a two year old - "This is my daughter, she is two." I get to say that now.

We decided not to do a party again this year for her, and instead we are going to just keep doing what we have been doing with these summer days. She has been having so much fun, why ruin it with a party. We are really trying to squeeze the most out of this time off we have before everyone starts working again. This has been one of my most favorite summers of all time, but I feel like I keep saying that every year. Do I? I will have to go back and check my records.

We shipped ourselves away for the summer, and spend most of our time at "Camp Gido", where we have been making sure Tessa makes her full transformation into a fish, and that LB learns how to catch them. Between the pool, the lake, and the fluffy green grass, I'm not sure these kids are going to remember what shoes are. It has been a barefoot summer for sure.

The afternoon rain has been cooperating so far, and gives everyone a nice break and reason to get out of the water, and when the clouds start to break apart in the sky and the storms move off, it makes the sunsets over the lake really spectacular. Too bad we don't like to drink Corona, because every time at sunset when I walk by those two chairs pictured at the bottom of this post, I keep thinking that I am supposed to be sitting there drinking one, and toss my phone in the water.

** All photos taken on land with a Canon7D mounted with the 24mm 1.4 lens, underwater photos taken with the Kodak Sport underwater thingy, it's super fun.

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Blame it On Swimming Pools & Berries

**The photos of the kids in the garden were taken at my mother and father's place. They had blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, and some grapes blooming and delicious in their garden.

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Blame It On Sunshine & Ice Cream

So what's the big huge delay exactly with getting Cole's blog up and running? Why is it taking so damn long? Well... I have received enough sweet inquiries about it, that I thought I would take today to sort of explain. To be totally honest it is hard to stay on task with everything we have going into this (overly ambitious) new blog, because we have days like yesterday-- Somedays you just want to lay in heat of the sun in some nice fluffy green grass, and then spend the afternoon teaching the kids how to turn a bowl of peaches into a bowl of sweet peach ice cream. The Littlest Buddy loved making this for everyone, and he did indeed do the bulk of the work. We lose our days to things like this ALL the time. Cole's father has had an ice cream machine collecting dust in his garage for the last 11 years, "The Il Gelataio (The Ice Cream Man)" and he just brought it over hoping someone would finally use it, so we have been sure to use it regularly. So with all that said, I wanted people to know that we are most definitely excited about making something cool to share online that focuses solely on Cole's passions, but it is going to take some time. Right now our big focus is on getting LB transitioned to summer and his new schedule, and making sure Tessa is safe in the water since so much of our FL summer is spent at pools, and lakes, and beachside. I am tackling swim lessons this year, and so far so good. She is kicking like mad, and blowing bubbles like a champ. So thank you for the enthusiasm about the new blog, and more importantly thanks for the patience. Enjoy your summer. They go quick.

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Priceless First Attempts

Don't you just love how hilarious and brilliant it is watching kids start to figure out how to do the little things that we do in daily life... How terrible they are at things at first, watching them reason things out, gears turning, fingers trying to find the finesse to maneuver new objects, their concentration faces. All of it is great theater, and this new little phase of growing up is so much fun to be around.

I have been watching Tessa try and clip her sunglasses onto her shirt for days now, and was lucky to catch her the other day in the middle of another one of her attempts. She knows that we take off our glasses and get them to stick onto our shirts somehow, she just hasn't quite figured it out exactly.

Enjoy the show.

I'm not usually one to go around giving out photo assignments, but for any of you parents reading along armed with cameras, try and do a series like this of your little one figuring something out for the first time. Not as in exercise in photography necessarily, it's just really funny to have. I feel like Tessa will laugh at this one pretty hard when she is all grown up. If you make one, be sure to link me to it.

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TV Face

I find it hard not to let Tessa watch more TV than she should because of how fascinated I am of her reactions from it. She is almost two and although she loves age appropriate shows, she also has become very fond of a cartoon called Adventure Time. (The Jiggler is one of her most favorite episodes, watch it) Now for those of you familiar with the show, before you get all hysterical about how I'm a monster for letting my little girl watch this kind of show, I just wanted to say, COLE LETS HER WATCH IT TOO! :)

That isn't what I wanted to add actually, (but it's true, she does) I have my reasons for exposing Tessa to Adventure Time, and although I know this is the kind of post that can end up going south with strong opinions, I wanted to offer up my reasoning behind it for a discussion. I am curious to see if anyone else out there is on the same tip.

I chose this particular cartoon and put it in the rotation simply because it reminded me of the kind of cartoon I grew up on. The characters are brash, and smart-alecky, and are prone to violence, I watched hours of Looney Tunes growing up, and not this new glossy prissy Looney Tunes they parade around. I watched the Looney Tunes where cats shot themselves in the head, and hung themselves, and pigs and ducks fought Hitler, and there was a mouthy rooster that repeatedly smashed a dog in the teeth with garden tools. These were cartoons that didn't have a disclaimer at the front of them about how educational and nutritious they were for the kids, they were just pure silly hearted ridiculousness. I think it is healthy to throw a little mischief and mayhem into the mix so Tessa knows what it looks like, and so I chose to let her watch Adventure Time for that reason. I remember when people first started freaking out about Looney Tunes and worrying about little kids hitting their siblings over the head with frying pans and the like. It got nuts, I guess the argument became that parents didn't want one more thing that they had to worry about. So here we are now decades later with an entire TV channel filled with cartoons made for little kids that don't use violence as a punch line, has it made things any better?

All I know is that Tessa watched one episode of that Ni Hao Kai-Lan show and it was 20 minutes of tigers and pandas acting like spoiled babies just so the little chinese girl could show everyone how it isn't cool to act like an asshole like that. All Tessa saw was a bunch of cute animals acting like jerks, and she didn't laugh once. I thought cartoons were supposed to be funny.

So I guess the discussion here is do you think that cartoons have lost their way? Have they just turned into opportunities to push the parenting agenda? Like everything else have we put so many pads and helmets and safety precautions on them, that these kid cartoons are just becoming preachy parenting moments packaged in cute animated voices? Isn't it our job to teach our kids not to act like little monsters-- now all the sudden I have Wow Wow Wubbzy helping me out with that one? I mean, I appreciate the help, it's cool that Wow Wow has my back, but sometimes I want Tessa to be able to sit down and just laugh at insanely impossible larger than life television. It has been my understanding that cartoons and television were made as an escape, a fantasy, cartoons especially were made to be funny. What's funny about these toddler cartoons on Nick Jr? I didn't tell Tessa what to laugh at, or coach her to like Adventure Time, she just gets it. It's freaking funny, and so she laughs. The jury is out whether or not she will wake up one day and hit me in the face with an entire garbage bag of hot butter for the ultimate prank, or want to build a never ending pie throwing robot that heats pies in its microwave belly so they are piping hot when they hit you in the face. If she does? I will help her make one of course.

Thoughts?

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The Hair Show Floor

It's 1AM and I just got home from Redken's yearly party they throw at Premiere Orlando and am downloading hundreds of grabs from the showroom floor and the model room, so while I wait for cards to unload, and hard drives to back me up, I thought I would put a quick collection of some of the sights that I see in a day at a hair show. How many of you have ever been to a hair show before? I encourage you to all experience it at some point in your life if you are a great lover of hair and hair salons. Picture every major hair/beauty brand, and then 200 you have never heard of, all showing off what they do, all at the same exact time. Yeah! It's bonkers. So here is a little tour through my lens. These are a mix of shots of a few of the L'Oréal brands: Redken, Pureology, Matrix, and L'Oréal Professional. I am heading back today to capture the last day of the madness. Hope you enjoy the hair inspiration. Some of the things I see these people do with hair is just incredible, and I feel truly lucky to get to be around this industry in this way. Such a fun distraction to be dumped into a pool of hard working creatives doing what they do best, and then asked to shoot their work. They make my job easy. I'm thrilled to say that I will be heading to NYC a few times this year to work on a really exciting project for Redken, with someone I admire immensely. I will leak more details as I can, but I can say it will involve me shooting at Fashion Week for the first time. And that is one more thing I can check off my list of things I have always wanted to do. Pinching myself a little, and would be a jerk not to say thank you for the support and encouragement I get around here to keep at this. Thank you.

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