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!

Twitter

Find me on twitter at megamoore. Heh.

Baby born!

We're ridiculously pleased to announce the birth of our baby boy. Email me for his name - we'll let him choose the time and place to unveil his name on the internet.

Our baby was born on Sunday, May 18, 2008 at noon, weighing 8 lbs. 6 oz. and measuring 20.5 inches.

Pictures!

Triangles and sailing in Buzzards Bay

Leaving a triangle at the corner of a photo can be distracting...

Unless the whole photo is filled with them!

We were taken out for a sail on a wooden boat on Buzzards Bay, just off of Cape Cod. The wooden boat is owned by a friend, and captained by some new friends. Brian and my parents came with. It was a cloudy day, and the wind patterns were all over the place as the air mass shifted to make room for an incoming tropical storm. Barry, I think.

The boat is named Valora, and she's steady as a rock. When we finally found some wind further out in the harbor, almost to the shipping lane out of Cape Cod Canal, the boat seemed as though she puffed out her chest, with the sails filling and the deck leaning away from the wind as we picked up speed. The piece that sticks down into the water through the hull was pulled up so we were a shallow boat, able to navigate well in the sandy waters of the bay.

And then -- and then! -- Lu showed me how to use the tiller! I stopped taking pictures for a while and Brian took some of me with a smile filling up my face. They showed me how to tack! And the boat didn't skip across the water - she positively flew. Smoothly, responsively. I think I remember hearing 7 1/2 knots.

If delirious happiness on a Sunday makes a difference, I'm in for a good week.

Really Pink

Photo shoot on Mother's Day with Caroline and her mom.

I got to meet them a couple of years ago when I photographed Caroline at 8 months or so. We went to a park in town and she and her mom played and looked at flowers - and cried (just Caroline) - and then played again. All in all, a really satisfying shoot.

A year later, we got to do it again. Same park, but now Caroline was playing on the jungle gym - and was VERY into playing peek-a-boo. We made a book from the photo shoot and gave it to her father for his trip to Russia. Got a note a few weeks later from him saying it was the most amazing thing ever, and made him really happy.

And Mother's Day rolled around and we did another shoot - this time in the studio. Caroline is talking, active, curious - and very pink! She and her mom goofed around and played some singing games, and then her mom stood behind me to help get this shot. You can see that Caroline's gaze isn't quite at the camera lens, but she's got a very open, engaged look.

Lighting - Umbrella to my right, fairly high. Umbrella to my left, low and to Caroline's side, giving wrap-around lighting that's balanced by the light on the right. One of these days I'll get around to finding a softbox... and finding out what "key lighting" means...