The Mad Hatter

Diana Coluntino came into the studio for photos of her creations a while back. She does beautiful and sometimes dangerous-looking sculptures, whimsical hats, and 2 1/2 dimensional paintings. Fantastic, energetic work.

At the end of our shoot, I asked if we could make an artist portrait, and this is what we did.

The Lost Sock

The lost sock. Off it goes, baby-style.

In the summer, I photograph flowers using a macro lens. I try to think like a bug. This winter, I took some photos of my son with a macro lens. I'm not sure I wasn't thinking like a bug.



This was from a shoot this past weekend at the Lowell studio. I find myself conserving effort where I can, when I've got my kid along. For example, I usually set up a couple of lights for a studio shoot. With C along for the ride, I let the natural light win.

The studio's 4 windows face south, and depending on the time of day and the cloud cover, the ambient lighting can be cool, warm, or weird. The lighting that day was fairly cool, with some bright blocks from the sun shining directly on the backdrop paper.

Chasing an active 8 month old around with a macro lens is an exquisite combination of joy and frustration.

Sharing is easy... so far

Suzi's son Dashiell and C pass a box back and forth the other day at our house. Neither of them minded when the other took the box. There was, however, no offering of the box.

Photography-wise, the background is a mess. I decided I didn't mind for a couple of reasons.
1 - The "my kid!" factor. In other words, it's my kid and why would I mind a little messy background when it's such a cute shot!
2 - The snapshot factor. Yep, it's a snapshot. A quick take of a cute moment before it went away forever.

Things that I like about the picture are the subject (it's my kid!), the 2 round, mostly bald heads, the intent expressions on their faces, and the moment of giving/taking the box. I also like that the photo was taken almost from their level. And finally, the background is good for showing the regular mess that happens with 2 active babies.

How could I have improved the shot? I could have gotten right down with them, maybe even looking up at them from near the floor, though the windows would have produced lens flare. I could have opened up the aperture so the background went blurry.

It's always easier to consider what to do after the fact - but it's fun to keep learning from my own examples.

Next up: Ask Suzi if we can go into the studio again with the 2 babies!

My kid treed the cat

It's true: my kid treed the cat. Which can only be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Zoom in on the "Look what I did!" face:

Mirror pic

C digs the mirror!

Photographically, I've always had a hard time composing mirror shots. I was hoping I wouldn't go wrong with this one.

The light coming into the living room in mid-morning is contrasty but lovely to shoot in. With C facing down, light bounced back onto his face from the mirror - I should try that kind of light bounce in the studio! And I love the highlight on his cheek, about the same value as the highlight on his hair.

And beyond that, he was smiling at me - his momma! - so the picture warms my heart every time I look at it. How does it affect you?

Photo collages

There's a series of photo exhibits that take place over a weekend in Lowell. That's coming up at the end of January. I recently did a series of photos of artists, artwork, and stuff they use to make artwork. The exhibit at Western Ave. (where I maintain a photo studio) has "Point of View" as its theme. In a building that has more than 150 artists, I wanted to show the variety of personalities, artwork, and the sheer volume of stuff.

I made 12 collages and stuck them all together. They look a lot like a quilt when seen from a distance. The next step would be stitching along the photo borders, but I didn't think of that in time!

Hedgehog!

While I'm being enthusiastic, I must write about the hedgehog. Krysta and Lee came for dinner... and brought their hedgehog Poppy. I'd had the idea that hedgehogs were bigger, grumpier, and spikier. This hedgie was massively cute. In a tiny way. So tiny that she fit in this container.

So massively cute that she curled up in Krysta's hands. It was after dinner, so it was time to go to sleep. I confess to prodding her (with Krysta's encouragement). Result: tighter ball of cuteness, with occasional leg protrusion.

New C pix!

Here's a new pic of C -




















That's actually from the end of November, around Turkey Day. Let's see if I can find a more recent one...

Photographers. You'd expect them to be right on top of taking and filing pix of their kids...

Shuffle, shuffle...
















Here!

C with his Gramma Moore - thank you for the awesome visit!

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