Babi3s...

Been missing these three like crazy. Finished this little collage that I'm printing at 20"x30". Huge thanks to my sis Cami for taking the great pic of Ruby (top). This is what I needed it for. I rarely saw these darlings during the day so lighting was problematic. I'm grateful that they made the long extended trek here over the Holiday.


ps. A plug for Costco. If you have not yet tried the large prints at Costco, give them a shot. They are cheap (20"x30" is $9ish), quick (1 hour, same as other prints) and do all large sizes in-house now. Over the last year they've gone from doing them elsewhere, to an in-house HP large format printer, to an in-house Epson which I'm really liking. The Epson leaves a 1/4 inch white border which I thought I'd hate...but I actually really like it. After I get this one printed, I'll take a photo of some of these on the wall and add it here so you can see what I mean.

Edit (a few days later):  Like this:

Or this:

The arrangement of the room is a work in progress...it may never be finished.  But I love these large prints.

The Christmases: A photo journography

Ladies and Gentlemen... In the center ring.... Presenting: The Christmases!!! In their Seasonal Journography....

The following are photos from our Christmas break from Life, the Universe and Everything. Presented in no particular order.


My roof is waaay up there. I hung some lights, to keep up with the Jonses. In my neighborhood, we're only allowed to use white colored lights. Boring. But that's the country-club mentality of the East for you. Rules, rules, rules.

Jackson, or Jacksons head rather. Watching some teev, waiting for Christmas to get here.


Dude, at this first Basketball game. His team is called "The Rockers."


My dudes and me at work. We got in on the PS3 craze. A bit silly, but we made a few bucks.


We saw family a lot. This is my sister and her man during a fun gingerbread house making party.



My other local sister, and her fam at the Temple. A fun night.


Kevins car asplode....


The Christmas card I sent to my scout boys.


We played with Magnetix at work.


The Temple looked great. The workers and volunteers there did an awesome jorb on the lights.


My sister and her man again. They were Joseph and Mary in this awesome live-action nativity scene at the Temple. We called it KCmatronics.


Me and my love at the temple. Isn't she pretty?


A nice shot of the temple at night.


The boy, celebrating the toyness of Christmas morning.


My Sister and her cute son. He calls me "Mattoo Matt."


My dude putting out the cookies, milk and pennies (his addition) for Santa. He's saying "Cheese" in the style of Wallace (from Wallace and Gromit).



His majesty, with the toys.



My little break-dancer, trying to do the worm. Wearing the Jammies grandma sent him. This is Christmas eve.



The cousins and their finished G-Bread housen.


It was a nice holiday. Of course, my dude got sick with Bronchitis (so what's new!?) This week he had surgery to have this adenoid removed which is supposed to help. With the break and the surgery, we've had a ton of time to hang out and play games and laugh. It's been a nice healing time, and a successful holiday! Huzzah!

This picture is only worth about 20 words. Can you help?

So, I've been shooting with a new camera. A Canon Rebel XT. It's quite an upgrade from the Fuji S5000, which I loved. (I put about 15000 photos on the Fuji.)

I'm working on a shot of a local farm. I can't seem to capture the same sense of easy-going comfort that I get when I view it from the road. Below are my first two attempts.

I need feedback! Please give me any criticism you can about this photo. Anything, really. Tell me what you like and don't like about it's composition, the subjects, the lighting, the developing, etc. I thought it would be a good exercise for me to get a picture really right...and since it's close, I can go back often to re-shoot. You can see a color version of the picture here.

See my notes on the first two tries below.


I took this one at about 4:00pm in November. So, the shadows are long, and there isn't much contrast due to the sun. My wife suggested (and I agree) that I get it when the barn isn't so drab and one-colored.

More from this shoot can be found here.



This is the next day, about 1pm. More sunlight on everything makes for better shadows etc. But it loses some of the mystique it has in the first. Right?

More from this shoot can be found here. A slightly different angle, which I like, is here.

Any ideas anyone?