Shoot that kid!

One of my favorite subjects to shoot are my boys. In my recent uploads, I decided to focus on a topic close to home right now: growing up. My oldest boy is getting ready for Kindergarten in the fall and we are working on learning to tie his shoes and become even more independent.



Check out this listing of more photos of my boys as they grow up.

Side Note:
It's amazing how much you change when you become a dad. Before I had kids I worked at an ad agency. On a shoot that I was art directing we had a kid just a little older then my son is now. This boy was a holy terror. I couldn't get him to stay in position long enough to snap an exposure. He ended up running all around the studio… and up the plaster seamless background like it was a skateboard ramp. I thought the photographer was going to strangle the kid. And the mother just sat in the back and read her magazine without helping at all.

That day I vowed: NEVER will I work with children or animals. The old Hollywood axiom is certainly true. However, times change. I enjoy shooting kids now (boy, that didn't sound proper at all, did it?)

It's all about who you know!

I had a "mishap" in Vegas with my tripod I picked up off eBay. It's been a great tool, but in Vegas, I found out the threads had been stripped beyond belief. On the plane back, the head came loose and bent the center column all up. I was ready to pitch it and get a new one, a Manfrotto like Andipantz has.

I figured I'd give it one last shot. My Dad was over for my son's birthday party and I asked him if he thought he could repair it. "Sure, no sweat" he says. So, he took it home, reshaped the tube and locktite'd the head back into the tube. I'd mentioned that I was a bit concerned about stability of it and didn't want my beloved camera crashing to the ground. He asked me how permanent I wanted the head attached. Well, since I was ready to get rid of it, I said "as long as it works and is stable, I'll be happy."

The next day, he returned by tripod with a new handy dandy support piece to "pinch" the tube around the threads of the tripod head. It's a pretty slick little piece. Looks cool as well as does a good job of securing the entire thing.



So, A big thank you to my Dad! He does good work. Plus I figure he just saved me about $500.

"That's my boy"

I tend to keep my blog on topic of my professional life, but last night I had a "that's my boy" moment that I felt compelled to share.

I was at the bike shop with my son, fitting him for a new bike for his birthday. My riding buddy ended up being there as well and as usual, we started chatting and dreaming of new bikes we "need". We go to this shop quite often so we know the guys there pretty well. So my friend, Jon was asking the guy how much certain bikes were… and after a while (when he realized we were just tire kicking) he just told us, "I don’t know all the prices, I work in the back." After a few more pricing questions, he laughed and teased us "I don't work out here…"

Later, my friend tells me, I should get this one bike, because it's a great bargain. The guy at the shop says, "no, you want a bargain, that one over there has all the bells and whistles for only $1800. That's a bargain." At that point, my 5year old Kyle, looks at him and says, "I thought you didn't work here."

For any isckers who met me in Vegas would probably say, "yep, a chip off the old block!"

It's important to trust your media!

Murphy's Law was in full effect in Las Vegas for me. If it could have gone wrong, it did. While out at our wedding shoot, my Canon 10D just froze and refused to "boot". At first I thought it was a low battery, so I charged it up. After a while, I still had the same problem. So I swapped batteries with Simon, no luck. After a little head scratching, I pulled out the CF card and the camera started up.

I tried the Lexar 40X 1GB card in my card reader hard drive and got a "data error" message. I put in my backup card and was back to shooting, but I had to switch back to JPEG because of space. I tried the Lexar card in a couple of the Apple Notebooks and the volume wouldn't even mount on the desktop.

So, I was panicked a little, that I had lost some of my Vegas memories (not to worry, there was only about a dozen more cameras pointed at each other to capture the sights). Luckily, when I got home, I was able to pull my images from the card on my PC. Not sure why the Macs had trouble with it… but I plan to "shelve" that card now. I had a corrupt image on it last time around and did a good format on the PC of it, but it still had problems.

I'm sure that Lexar tech support is good and there customer service would probably replace the card free of charge, but I don’t trust their media anymore. Not with the stories I've been hearing. I'll move back to SanDisk or Kingston that I've had NO troubles with.

Bloggers in the media.

Typically, I don't blog about blog stuff. I try to stay on topic of design and photography. This one was hilarious though!

Daily Show News Story About Blogging

I have been hearing so many things in the media these days from the way bloggers are regarded. Some places refer to bloggers and "fringe kooks" (and I'm sure those guys are out there... but they are out there in society too.) to being referred to as the "Napster equivelent" of journalism.

Regardless, it's nice to know that the media seems to have an interest in bloggers other then something to poke fun of. It's important for them to remember. Bloggers are people... and possibly the very consumers of their product they may offend.