30 Political Ads

Sara and I just got back from early voting. I picked up the mail and counted 30 political ads in the stack. It's a shame... not that I would have read them even if I still needed to vote... sorry these didn't even make it into paper airplanes before going into the trash.

Ruby the barking dog

Ruby is afraid of children but she loves Maggie. One time Ruby snapped her fingers after she spent several minutes taunting the dog with a pine-cone. It didn't really stop her from liking the dog but she does throw the pine-cones faster when playing fetch.  Oh, the joys that her Mother would protect her from.

Trunk or Treat

Maggie was excited to hit the road and get some candy.

Examiner.com

My first article is online. Please make comments it will make me happy:)
http://www.examiner.com/x-72478-Las-Vegas-Green-Building-Examiner

Pumpkinlicious

Tonight we got together with some friends for FHE. The soups were delicious and the pumpkin carving was radilicious.

Nature Walk: Discovering the unbeknownst

Saturday I strapped on a pack and Maggie and me went for a little hike.  I put Maggie in her 2T clothes.  Unbeknownst to me her clothes came from a special pile Sara had prepared to be boxed up.  I also put her in a white sweater, which also unbeknownst to me was her church sweater... not to be worn outside.  While we were walking around looking at ants, Maggie tripped and cut her lip which bled all over the white sweater.  Knowing I could be in serious trouble I quickly washed out the blood with our drinking water and wrapped Maggie in my hoodie... a disaster avoided... oh, ya Maggie was okay... a minor scratch.  On the hike down Maggie unbeknownst fell asleep.

Exploring Outside

If we are going on a bike ride we have to make it to the garage... and the only way to make it the garage is to carry Maggie... because if she walks... she will get sidetracked. Today we got sidetracked and never made it to the garage.

Fairview Headstone

Atlas, four years later Dad has an official headstone.

Tunnel Vision

I have spent the last few weeks shooting with my wide-angle lens. I am starting to actually enjoy this lens, some of the images are incredible. I love this one of Maggie walking out of a tunnel.

Road Kill

Okay, I haven't taught Maggie to look both ways before crossing the street... in fact she enjoys laying down in the middle of road while reflexively looking upwards.

Pumpkin Patch

It was Sara's idea to go to In-and-Out and to the Pumpkin Patch for family night... it was fun and got us excited for Fall.

Sugar Sugar

While Sara was cleaning the house and I was helping our neighbor move... Maggie found a bag of lollipops.

Rainy day

It was a beautiful, rainy day in our neck of the woods. Stanford captured us playing in it after church. We love the rain!

Wrestling

Everyday we have wrestling time on the bed. It is part of Maggie's boy training. We throw pillows, make tent of blankets, wrestle with pillows, catapult onto the bed, have pillow pile-up and fall off the bed. Her time is split between crying and laughing. It is a rigorous schedule but at the end of day she still seems to love her dolls and girly things.

Time

My Mom was always timing everything. If the dishes didn't get washed in ten minutes, the bomb would detonate... kaboom... the end of the world. So I started timing myself lately. It takes me 15 minutes to clean the kitchen. I hate it when that timer goes off... a flash of white and my life passes before me. I have yet to survive one of these experiments.

Maggie the Exporie

Okay, I just finish editing the images from my friends wedding and it is easy to notice a certain style.  I like to turn people into architectural elevations.  But today I felt the urge to breakout of my thinking so I picked up my least favorite lens... curious about what I could do with my wide-angle-cluttering-up-every-image-lens.

Yosemite

Deep from the archives, I found pictures of our trip to Yosemite with Tonya and her girls.

Pre-Child Bliss

I found these images in the archive... documenting pre-child bliss.  Happy Birthday Carly!

Wanting to be something you are not.

So you want to be a snowboarder or a writer but you don't want to make the sacrifices necessary to be one. I love how popular movies generate temporary interests in things... I found myself wanting to be a Kung Fu martial artist after watching Bruce Lee but I could never get beyond yellow belt. I don't know why... why sometimes I want to be something I am not. Well, I really don't write.. especially technically.. or grammarically... but I recently applied to write for the Examiner and it looks like they might let me write for them. Finally I can be a writer or discover that I am not much of writer at all... time will tell.

Remember when...

We actually had a little bit of family living here... at one point. It has been almost a year since my cousin moved away... leaving us stranded. We really do miss having them around. I guess we have given up on any other family moving here. Anyway, I found this picture of Maggie's cousin Cooper in the visit archives.

Posing

These pictures just make me laugh because I don't like to have my picture taken... I know it is ironic but true. You have to let someone into your intimate space be to photographed... but you also have to enter into an intimate space to take photographs... so this was an unusual exercise... to be in both places. I have been doing a lot of photography reads in my spare time and getting millions of ideas... so self portraits are perfect for experimenting.  Anyway I took my inspiration from Carly who is always shooting through a mirror... her self-portraits our among my favorites.  Okay, one recommended photography read...  Available Light.  Very enjoyable information book and not too complicated.  Anyway, these images are funny to me just because I couched myself to not look like a deer in headlights... my standard pose.  My favorite photographs are usually the candid unplanned photograph but sometimes you don't have the luxury of waiting for the perfect lighting and perfect moment to collide... so you have to make the moment and hopefully make a it real moment.  I am still in practice but posing... it is what most people need the most couching on... including myself.

Portrait

Maggie and me put the camera on a tripod and hooked up the remote.  Tomorrow I will post the self portraits... which are really funny.

Campaign Ads

I finally found something good about mailed campaign ads. I was inspired by an exhibit I saw at Monterey Airport on paper airplanes.