It's A Duck

A new blog!!

2009-03-01T13:09:00.000-08:00

So, I've updated and moved the Stairstep Kids Photography Blog. I'm happy with the way it looks so if you get a chance, stop by!! Stairstep Kids Photography Blog

This is where I'll post sneak peeks and other client specials. (I might start doing family shots there too, we'll see. It's hard to do multiple blogs you know!!)

This is how I feel today...

2009-01-28T12:06:00.001-08:00

in a spare minute, sitting here in a towel b/c it is the first time I've had a chance to shower since Monday...don't tell. And my bedroom door is locked for some peace and quiet for 15 minutes. And it's raining again. Or icing. Or sleeting. Or something.

A new shooting space???

2009-01-10T03:37:00.001-08:00

These first two are from a great space around the corner. A converted library building with large windows and vaulted ceilings. I'd have a dedicated shooting space too! It's beautiful...but pricey. Another great space, nice light, but the ceilings aren't as high. I'd have to drive, but there is a fantastic gym next door in a converted townhouse with a great yoga studio (for shooting, not for yoga...ha!) and a dance room with a very large picture window. If not for the driving...

Happy New Year!!

2009-01-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

The glass makes a difference...

2008-12-30T19:49:00.000-08:00

My new L glass...some kids just waking up...and I'm lovin' it. (yes, she still has the tattoo; no, Mila does not like to have her picture taken; and yes these are handheld at 1/40).

A few from Christmas

2008-12-28T18:40:00.000-08:00

How funny is this kid? She balanced this box of beads on her head for 15 seconds at the behest of her cousin Ian. Several times over she did this (until mom came and ruined her mojo). Dave was the photographer on this one.

Mila & her friends

2008-12-23T17:19:00.001-08:00

Oy! We can't even wake up in peace...

2008-12-22T18:51:00.000-08:00

My children clearly suffer from PCS (photographer's child syndrome). Poor dears came downstairs from their naps today and the light was so nice, I didn't even bother to change my settings...which is ok because they didn't bother to brush their hair.

Anna is clearly annoyed with me.
Mila just wants to watch the Letter Factory in my bed...
And, while the focus fell on her bangs in this shot, I kept it because she looks so ethereal, in stark contrast to her shot from yesterday where she looks like a forlorn cast-off from Ozzy's tour bus.

The 85mm - How I Love Thee

2008-12-22T03:58:00.000-08:00

For the first time in an untold number of months, we had nothing on our schedule yesterday. We could have done things, sure, but we chose not too. After a long week of doctor's appointments, inhalers, antibiotics and whatnot, we decided to just stay home. And clean. And take pictures with our new 85mm 1.8.

Anna's new neck tattoo. She's an avid baseball fan you know.
Mila sitting still for about a second.
Eddie humoring me before going off to draw a picture of GO4 with his dad...
Jolie showing me what's on her head (when in fact I asked her what was on my head to get her to look at the camera, but whatever, it worked).

Guess the missing elf

2008-12-07T13:35:00.001-08:00

She was making cookies while we were contemplating the idea of cutting down our own tree...we bought a tree from a local Little League charity instead. But we did have fun with the hat.

A Very Large Anna

2008-12-01T18:51:00.001-08:00

The newest offering at Stairstep Kids is Canvases!! They are beautiful. The below is a 20x30 1 1/2 inch Fine Art Wrap. It's a gorgeous piece, if I do say so myself. (The little elfin figure in it isn't too bad either.) I'm offering the 16x20 canvases for an introductory price of $115, so if 20x30 is too big for you (check it out relative to the 8x10 next to it), the 16x20 might be the way to go.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I'm too busy to post them at the moment, but I'll try to get some shots from our holiday up soon!

We took the day off

2008-11-23T19:53:00.000-08:00

Well, most of the day. But after shoots on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday, I finally had no sessions. So of course I got out the camera. I was playing with a new lens so that's my excuse.

[I'm so tired that I deleted this entire folder of images immediately upon opening, including all of my November family shots. No clients (theirs are backed up anyway) but everything from 11/1 'til today. Panic much? The adrenaline is still pumping which is why I'm still awake. For a minute or two.]

JuJu: The Hat Series

2008-11-19T19:09:00.000-08:00

I have been busier than a one-armed paper hanger recently so forgive the lack o' posting. Here is a quick series that I did today. Not the best I've ever done, but caught Jolie in one of her "I like this hat, I think I'll wear it" moments. Do you sense a theme with my kids and hats?

A note about the pictures and the lens I used. This is an 85mm 1.2L (for which I must thank my brother-in-law. I'll be sad when he takes it back). In these shots, it's open quite wide, 1.8 maybe, and you can see how unforgiving it is in its depth of field. One eye, a few sequins, and some hair in focus. Pretty much everything else, not so much. But!! On the bright side, you can shoot in exceptionally low light at faster shutter speeds...so, whatever. On to the pictures.

This is using a cross-process action from Leah Profancik's MiaBella actions. Her urban rock action set. Nice.
And this is what Jolie looks like when something happens and she doesn't like it. Or something smells bad. Like her brother.

Playing with flashes & actions

2008-11-08T17:59:00.000-08:00

I have been so busy on the business side of things that I haven't had time to take pics of the kids. I used some flash testing tonight to do just that. (I couldn't figure out if my master/slave set-up was working so I was in the bathroom taking pictures of the mirror. Umm. Yeah.)

Then, since I don't get to do much creative processing for my clients, I thought I'd play a little.

Fun. At least Anna & I were having it. Jolie wasn't so much, obviously.

A few from Halloween...

2008-10-31T18:54:00.000-07:00

Before I pass out from the day (that started at 2:30am)...then went to a pumpkin patch with 98 children under 6. Or 80 children under 6 and several adults to pen them in. Then went to a halloween party, where aforementioned children proceeded to wear their costumes, and their snacks, whilst fighting over their pumpkins.

If you can't see it below, click here. Now, happy halloween and to bed with you.

To tide you over...

2008-10-27T14:40:00.001-07:00

Who's bringing the crazy?

2008-10-20T18:10:00.000-07:00

Does this happen in your house? Does bringing out the winter hats cause this reaction? One child who says she's going to be "winter hats" for halloween. One child who perches a hat on the top of her head because it makes her sister crack up. And one child who had to be forced to put on underwear because he was too busy being a zen boxing master with his fingerless gloves and his On The Waterfront beanie. (I'd have posted the zen pose, but seeing as how he was buck naked, it didn't really seem appropriate.)

In case you are wondering, The JuJu had enough of it and went downstairs to play with Legos, or electrical sockets, I'm not sure.

When you are the coach...and father of four

2008-10-15T20:53:00.000-07:00

You need to make sure that your stretches are engaging, effective, and most of all, easy for a 17 month old to do.

A favorite...of a child that's not mine!

2008-10-13T18:12:00.000-07:00

This is my new favorite shot, or series of shots. She was so cute running in and out of the room. The camera was something very interesting, and scary. Cutest.

Yay! Run, Baby, Run!

2008-10-11T17:19:00.000-07:00

I can't do this, so I'm very impressed with those who can (to be fair, most of my days feel a little marathon-esque so that's how I take comfort). I took these with an older, slower lens today, just to practice when you don't have the fast lens crutch. They came out pretty well. And a big congratulations to everyone who ran in the Baltimore Marathon. Shout outs and winks and extra credit and all that stuff.

Love this!

This...is Anna

2008-10-06T18:54:00.001-07:00

She not only dances to the beat of her own drummer, she has her own personal band. It usually does not include any members of her family, except for maybe JuJu and occasionally Eddie if she's feeling benevolent.

She dresses herself (I would hope that is obvious), except for when she doesn't. Or rather she doesn't want to go back upstairs and find something different than what her mother has brought downstairs (which *gasp* probably matches. Quelle horreur!)

She smiles easily, but her full scale laugh, which is rare, is something to hear. It could make pretty much anyone melt. And the sleeping? She is without a doubt the most graceful sleeper known to man. No one sleeps like Anna.

This is all just to say that four years old is proving to be an interesting year for our dear Anna Banana (Little Anna Thunderpants...that's what Eddie calls her). She obviously has her father's creative spirit, judging by the four thousand drawings that come home stuffed into her backpack. Most of which are hers, many of which are not, but rather are gifts given to her by school fans. I'm not sure how she gets them. Fans, that is. She can be a truly...challenging friend at times. Apparently that's only at home though. At school, she's an exceptional sharer (???), very nice, good listener. Maybe she's Sybil.

When you positively cannot go another step

2008-10-03T18:00:00.001-07:00

...it's best to just lay down right where you are.

I find myself trying to figure out what is going through her mind at this moment. Is it "geez, there is a lot of noise down there, I think maybe I'll just hang out here until it all dies down." Or, is it more "I'm pretty sure Mila is going to pull my hair if I go down, and I'm a little to tired for that at the moment, so I think I'll wait until she pushes Jolie over and is sent to her room." Or "Christ, I'm exhausted. Waking up at 5am with Eddie staring at me really takes it out of me. I'm going to sleep right here."

Any of those, and all of those, throughout the day, is probably accurate. Although she does sound (in my thinking of her thought process) like the victim in each of those scenarios, which, on any given occasion could not be further from the truth.

But when they look like that, so sweet and so...quiet, anything is possible.

We had a little accident...

2008-10-02T19:52:00.000-07:00

A table leg fell on our foot. Don't tell, but I think that maybe we could have a broken one in there somewhere. At the very least we have some smashed toes and we can RIP two toenails. He's not the best patient (I will tell you that a.) I haven't met too many men who are; and b.) I was only good after my third c-section because I finally capitulated and took the drugs, so he comes by it honest).

Any time there is anything that remotely seems like it might be an issue, he begs not to be taken to the doctor, where, he will tell you, he got 19 stitches in his lip (it was three). Ok, then 19 stitches in my eyebrow? It was 9. Either way, they are etched in his brain as traumatic experiences and any similarly traumatic experience elicits a terrified cry of "please don't take me to the doctor. PROMISE ME!" It's heartbreaking, really.

I have to say, if this happened to my foot, I would be decidedly less manly.

You see what I deal with?

2008-09-30T18:34:00.001-07:00

This was tonight. With me naively thinking that maybe I could coax the kids into letting me get our holiday card picture. Clearly I smoked crack earlier in the evening. I had a better chance of getting them to stand up and recite the Bush Doctrine in its entirety (it's really only about three sentences long, Sarah.)

Some new pics from a wedding...

2008-09-30T18:21:00.000-07:00

I should really make sure to thank my Bro-in-law b/c without him, these shots would have been impossible. (Thanks Camper for the phat 5D and 85mm. It rocks).