More Goodbyes

Today we start the process of saying goodbye to Carly's Dad.  He was a good guy, and was taken way too soon.  The older I get the larger my "peer" group becomes.  Marketers may keep me in my own bin, but I consider my peer group to extend from about 20 to about 70 at this point.  I feel like I've lost a peer.  My wife has lost a father, and my kids have a lost a grandfather.  I lost a grandfather when I was roughly Kathryn's age also.  I remember what that felt like.  I also remember what it felt like when I was 17 waiting to go on the graduation stage, and again at 21 waiting to go stand in front of a few hundred people and watch Carly's Dad walk her down the aisle.  My thoughts have been with Kathryn, and like me, she isn't really going to tell us exactly what she is thinking.  I'm not sure it will affect Tobias in the same way, he is a bit younger, but I think he will have his moments too-- I just don't know what they will be.

There are a lot of things to tell.  But most stem from his sense of humor.  As an example when Carly showed him our engagement ring he said "You realize you can't give her back?".  I did.  I do.  I will keep her safe, and Scooter, and Toby.

And finally, I suppose I should explain the picture.  I'm not exactly sure how or when I decided to this.  It was probably a combination of putting off a haircut (not uncommon for me), and receiving word that Carly's Dad was diagnosed with a lung cancer.  I decided I would let it grow out completely to donate it Locks of Love, or similar organization.  I learned a lot though the experience, people treat a long haired guy a lot differently than they treat a a clean cut guy.  I can't say its all bad either, just different.  My favorite experience was the well meaning church lady giving me the evil eye.  The reason it is my favorite is because it contrasted SO much from how others looked at me there.  It reminded me that while there are always supportive people, there will always negative ones*. I can choose which ones I will listen too.  I can also choose which one I will be.

I suppose that among the last lessons Carly's Dad taught me.  He taught others by example, like keep fighting, don't complain, and do what you can for others-- even if it isn't as much as you once could.

* And it always seems the negativity comes from those that don't know the story, which makes it an easy to forgive "crime".  And another reminder for me to not be so judgmental in similar circumstances.

A couple of old pictures

This was an experiment stacking a 2x teleconverter on my 80-200 lens with a dual element close focusing lens attached to the front.

I spent an hour or so today trawling through a bunch of old pictures looking for some specific ones.  At the end I realized I had been diligent about tagging my images and could have found them in 3, maybe 4, seconds instead.  However, it wasn't a complete waste, I found a few interesting things.  Here are a couple I never shared before.

This just caught my eye.  Its not that special I guess.

Tobias as Mario

We are doing a lot of these lately. This one was by Tobias' request. My brain hasn't felt very creative the last week or so, but that is okay. It hasn't stopped Tobias. I decided to try something slightly different and present Mario as a diptych.

Favorites of the Year: 2011 Edition

For the past handful of years Jim M. Goldstein has posted an absolutely huge list of "best of the year" blog posts from people around the world.  This will be my third year submitting a post for the list [ If you missed the past ones, check out year one and year two. ].  I look forward to participating in this, and going through the list when he posts it.  ( The 2011 list is posted. )

And now to the pictures.  If you'd prefer to just look at them as a set and not read my ramblings hit up the flickr set.

I consider this picture one of my best in the last few years. There are a number of reasons why. I like the composition, the green and orange, the drizzle dancing off the pavement, the people, and that I got completely soaked making it. As I brought this through post-production I sat and stared at it like in an idiot. Its rare I do that. I also made a large print of it, which is also quite rare.  I like this one so much I encourage you to see it a bit bigger on the flickr lightbox.

This one makes the list because I hope it makes people think and it scared me to place it in public. Truthfully, it makes me nervous to re-highlight now. If you see this and are a little peeved with me, maybe my explanation makes it better. If not, I'm sorry, don't hold it against me too much because it isn't meant to offend ( If I truly wanted to, I'm sure I could think of easier ways to offend people ).

This is one of my attempts at landscapes this year. I don't feel I'm too good at them. I like the more compressed approach to landscapes that some people take, so I attempted to emulate it. I am placing it third in this list because it has the same orangey feel of the first two.  I had a couple of others that almost made the cut, but this one outdoes them.

These three represent a little project I have rolling with Tobias. He likes to dress up in costumes. I try to make some pictures that might capture the way he sees himself in them, instead of like the toys that they are. My favorite of the three is the Knight, it is the catalyst of the idea. The Clone Trooper is a very, very close second.  There are others in this flickr set .  We will continue adding to it over time.

Kathryn has gotten too "cool" for pictures.  So, it is nice when I am able to get a decent one of her.  Hopefully next year I will get the chance to make a few more.  They grow up fast.

Carly isn't much of a fan of this picture.  I, however, do like it.  Granted, its harder to get Carly to sit for a picture than it is to get Kathryn to sit for a picture, so I'm pretty happy with anything I can get at this point.

This is my favorite puppy picture for the year. The snow she is running about in was the first hour or so worth from a of a pretty nasty snowstorm.  It started slightly before rush evening hour. I opted to stay home that day because of the weather report. People that went in spent hours upon hours upon hours on the highway on the way home. Some had to abandon their cars and get them later. I got to take pictures of my dog.

Here is the final picture on my favorites list. It was an "out-take" from a some dancer pictures I was making. Why is it an out-take? Its not, really, I guess. But I opted to use a light setup for this different than the safer "one size fits all" approach that I used for everything else. It looks different. I put it last on this list because it seems like she is holding all the other pictures up.

If you have made it this far, thank you for looking and reading. If you stopped somewhere at the top, thank you too-- although you will not see this.

Have a good 2012.

Tobias as Spiderman

Spiderman is probably my favorite superhero characters.  In a way that is unexpected because, for the most part, I preferred DC comics to Marvel ones.  [Editor Note:  For those who didn't read comics Spiderman is a Marvel character].

Tobias likes Spiderman too.  He has had this suit for quite a while.  Its getting pretty beat up, and he will probably outgrow it soon.  It was time for a picture.

Again, like before this uses fairly straightforward lighting, and I pushed the processing a little to the side of overdone.

The one at the top is his favorite.  Mommy picked the second one.

My Clone

Tobias got a a new suit for Christmas. Of course, this pretty much meant we had to make another picture for the character project. I kept the same basic idea I started with the knight picture. Processing is just a tad to the side of overdone, and the lighting is pretty straight forward.

I'm not sure if he is really my clone.  He looks a good deal like me.  But I'm pretty sure he is smarter, and he is going to be a lot bigger and stronger than I ever was.

The suit is a tad too big, above is the pullback shot.  That one isn't hyper-processed.

Pictures of the "kids"

This is a quick update.  I was going to put 3 pictures up, but I had to leave one out.  I couldn't isolate Tobias enough on stage during his Christmas production avoid kids that I don't have permission to post.

The first one is Jazzy doing her best Scrooge impersonation.

And this is Kathryn in one of her Christmas dances.