Seattle!

Took a weekend trip to Seattle for some R&R and to see Karen's cousin Keane. Got some great photos by our hotel. Our hotel was right next to the SafeCo Field where the Seattle Mariners play.

We also took Erich to the Seattle Children's museum. It was a very fun exhibit. Companies had recreated many of the industrial applications but on a smaller scale for infants. Erich couldn't have been happier as he had lots of buttons to push and much to see!

Child Dedication @ the Bridge

Erich and Elias were dedicated to the Lord today along with their friends Caleb, Jesse and Emily Bartlett, and Parker Whitfield.

Pregnant!

No, this is not Karen about to have our second child, the picture is of Katherine, who is about 32 weeks pregnant when this photo was taken. Just thought it was a cute, dress blowing in the wind, Marilyn Monroe style picture.

The funny thing was that shortly after this picture was taken, a group obviously on some sort of photo scavenger hunt came up to Kat and asked for a photo with her. I guess one of the items on the scavenger hunt was to find a pregnant woman.

Happy Mother's Day 2007!

To all the mothers, Happy Mother's Day! We went for lunch at Kirin Restaurant with all the moms in our family, then played for a bit in the park with the kids.

Erich is clearly enjoying the coloured blocks! This is indeed his favorite part of the playground as it is the only play area with a steering wheel!

Dramatic Portrait Techniques ... and accidents

I have been very interested in the dramatic portrait lately. I have been skimming books at lunch hour on the subject as well as browsing sites that might help me improve my skill when it comes to creating a dynamic portrait. Part of this involves using a flash off camera set at the correct setting so as to illuminate the subject properly whilst adjusting the ambient exposure to be slightly less than normal - thereby creating a contrast. The key is to create just the right amount of contrast to have the right visual (and emotional) impact.

I decided to try my newfound technique on Erich. What you see below is the result.


Sometimes, accidents also turn out to be great portraits. Here, my shutter went off unexpectedly capturing a blurry image of Erich running down the sidewalk. Oddly enough, it works (much better so than had it been in focus).

Taking inventory

So I just spent most of Saturday dragging out samples of baby product and photographing them in my makeshift "studio". Basically this involved kicking Erich and Karen out of the house for a couple of hours, laying down some paper, setting up some "studio lights" (a.k.a. old flashes set on slave), an old laptop and a whole lot of patience. Once I got everything set up, it was quite easy to photograph things.

Of course when Erich came home, I couldn't resist taking a few shots as he wondered into my "studio"... turned out quite well actually as some of these "white room" shots eventually became part of my sister's birthday present.