RIP Canada Mug

Today is a sad day. Today I broke my favorite coffee mug.

It was an unfortunate accident...it fell from the kitchen counter onto the floor. It didn't shatter, so at first I had hope that it was OK, although the sounds it made gave me a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I quickly snatched it off of the floor and had a look...maybe it would only be the handle, and I could glue it back on. Well, it was the handle...but the handle was so solid that the mug itself cracked on either side of the handle.

It was a good mug.

It was over sized, so that I could cook a 'cup-o-soup' or a package or Mr. Noodles (Ramen noodles for you Yanks). There were a lot of lunches eaten from it...we have made it though some lean times, me and that mug. It could hold a full cup of coffee without being too full, which meant that I never spilled coffee on the way back to my office from the kitchen.

I got it from my Sister Alia and it's been with me for 10 years and at least 4 different jobs.

You will be missed...Canada Mug.

First Photos

Check this out...the very first photo of my kid. Actually...'photo' means light and this is an ultrasound...so it's the first 'picture' of my kid. Still...how cool is that?

We went in for the ultrasound this Monday...was an awesome experience. We could see the little guy (or girl, we didn't ask) moving around and opening his mouth like a fish. We even saw him hiccup a few times. It was really neat how the ultrasound tech could alter the depth of the scan and we could see different parts of the baby. The spine & neck would show up really clear, then he would change it so we could see some ribs. We saw his hands, feet fingers and toes...it was really cool. It even looked like he gave us a thumbs up at one point.

It was all over, far too soon...but we did get to have a couple pictures...although, we had to pay for them. I joked that this was the first and maybe only time that I would actually pay for pictures of my kid. Like any parent...I plan to take tons of photos of my kids and I've got some great ideas that I want to try out...he's just got to come out first.

Baby Portraits

After my photo class last Saturday, I rushed home to pick up my wife, my portable studio equipment and my camera gear. Then we went to Russell & Megan's house for a photo shoot.

We had to move the furniture around to make some space and I set up so that I could use the large living room window for light. Window light is great because of it's soft quality. I also had someone hold up a reflector on the other side, to fill in the shadows.

Aidan was a perfect little dude for the photo shoot. We started with a shirt & diaper but quickly went to the artistic nude shots. He was in great spirits and didn't even pee on anyone, what a gentleman. Just like with any baby portraits, the hard part is getting them to look where you want them to. Aidan couldn't stop staring at me when I first got there and when I was setting up...but of course, I wasn't as interesting when I had a camera in front of me. He's a smart little guy, so it really wasn't too hard to get his attention though.

The real problem was posing him. He can sit up on his own, but he just didn't want to...Mom and or Dad had to keep him from falling over and off of the table. There were no accidents but Megan's heart skipped a few beats now and then. When we tried to lay him down, he was very adamant about showing us how well he could roll over...and over and over. Lastly, I tried to get some shots of his feet...but then he was showing up how fast he can kick and punch. Eventually, he figured he would taste his toes, and was able to get the last shot.

Anyway, here are a few of the shots from the session. What an adorable kid, don't you think?

Photo Class

So I had a photo shoot booked for the morning of Saturday April 26th (last Saturday). We also had an appointment for a representative of ComFree to come over to the house on Saturday afternoon.

On Friday I got a reminder, via Microsoft Outlook, that I had signed up for a photo class on Saturday. Oops...I had to reschedule the photo shoot and the ComFree meeting.

The class was at Metro Continuing Education. I've taken a few classes there before, they are usually pretty good...this class was 'Family and Group Portraiture'. The instructor for this class was Tracy Grabowski, a professional photographer.

Tracey was a real spark plug. She was full of energy and enthusiasm...even though she admitted to not being a morning person. She was full of great stories that helped to illustrate the point that she was trying to teach up. She did tend to get off topic, but based on how fast and how much she was talking, we certainly got our money's worth for the class.

We were supposed to have a test family to practice on, but they cancelled. That was too bad because we (the students) had to be the people in the group portrait, which meant that it was hard to see what Tracey was seeing and doing, to get us set up nicely.

Overall, the class was pretty good. As with the other classes I've taken there, I didn't really learn too much technical knowledge. I don't claim to be an expert (or do I?) but I usually know most of the material that is being taught. The real benefit of these classes are the instructors. They are working pro photographers and they have a lot of great knowledge, the stuff that you don't find in books etc.

Tracy took a few shots of the group, we even had a little girl (a ballet student who walked by) take a shot, so that Tracy could be in the shot. She said that she would E-mail the shot to us...and I was going to put it up here. If it shows up, I'll be sure to post it.