Before and After
The baby is here, home and doing quite well. The belly shot was taken a week and a half before Zed arrived. The after shot taken just before he was 2 weeks old.
me
Getting Ready for Baby
The other day we spent after school time at our neighbor’s house. They have this super comfortable rocking chair that is also super modern. It reminded me of my chair search a couple weeks ago that turned up some uber-chic rocking chairs. After that search I looked at the more standard, and affordable, chairs… blah! Why would I want another one of those? The last one, although wonderfully useful while it lasted, was very noisy and not very stylish.
Anyway, Zach came to our neighbors to help round up the kids and I mentioned their rocking chair and how we really need one. Once home, my researcher began a looking on Craig’s List while I was busy getting dinner ready. By dinner time he had found the chair. A white Herman Miller shell with arms and a rocker to boot. For those of you not into vintage modern furniture, let’s just say it’s a very cool chair. Maybe you’d think this isn’t the most comfortable chair in the world, but our shell chairs for the bar are actually quite comfortable.
So, I called the seller and he was free that night. After dinner we began to head out when there was a knock at the door. I had completely forgotten we had an appointment with the EQ. Well, we said our apologies and headed out the door. Nesting errands trump visits from people. Ha! Sorry guys.
Anyway we got to the seller’s house and he had an upholstered rocker. Even better. I sat, rocked, checked it out and we chatted about the history of these chairs. He said the rockers were made for expecting office workers. Cool. It looked good and fit me well; we paid the man and headed home with our treasure.
Once home I realized I could really use this chair in my office while waiting for the baby. So comfortable. Not sure I’ll be able to give it up once the baby comes. I’ll just be nursing and surfing all day long.
I’m still alive
Just waiting for our new computer to live. I’ve got updates just waiting in the wings…
Hawaiian Retreat
I thought a trip to Hawaii would inspire me to photograph more than I did. We had a great time relaxing and adventuring around the island of Maui, but I never once wanted to be burdened with my huge camera. Thank goodness for the handy pocket camera. Otherwise no one would have seen what we did.
Sunrise on the plane to Dallas, my first stop. The whole way there I kept remembering my last trip to Texas. September 8th, 2001. Pretty fateful time in our country.
Zach’s parents celebrated their 44th anniversary. This was taken outside the timeshare. So many beautiful and fragrant flowers everywhere.
Same night, after dinner. If you look closely you can see a bride and groom having their pictures taken on the other side of the rocks.
Same beach, georgous sunset.
Heading out to Molokini Crater to snorkel.
Windblown and salty. Who could ask for anything more? I now understand why Teri has her hair in braids. Mine was suffering after this trip.
Through the bamboo forest trying to make our way to the actual trail. I felt like we were in The House of Flying Daggers movie. A gust of wind would blow through and knock all the bamboo against each other. You could really hear the wind coming as if it were a giant walking through the grass.
We eventually found the actual trail and saw a few waterfalls… and some people too. 
Then we came to this. Hey, if the girl with the flip flops and bandages on her feet could climb it so could I.
See? This was actually coming down… and staged. It was dry on the way up and began raining on the way down. We had to be extra careful coming back through all the slippery rocks.
These trees were so cool.
Fruit stand along the road to Hanna. The girls running it had only been in Hawaii less than a week. They were there to work the organic farm (hidden somewhere in the forest behind the stand) for 3 months. I asked if we could tour the farm. She had never been asked that question. Well, of course not. You’ve been here a week! I didn’t push it. We had to get back for lunch.
Big Beach. No buildings anywhere to be seen. Lots of boogie borders and skim boarders here. Zach and I had fun jumping the waves, which were probably 6ft. It doesn’t look it in the photo but trust me, they were big.
Another from Big Beach. I talked with these guys to let them know I’d be taking a photo. After asking what this thing was (it was a bomb shelter, so said the boogie boarders) they asked if I wanted to smoke a joint with them. Ha! As a teenager, would it be fun to smoke a joint with a 30 year old mommy? I can’t relate, but I’m sure someone out there might have the answer.
Along the trail to Honolua Bay, our last snorkel destination
This is Honolua Bay where we snorkeled. Beautiful, and the conditions were better than when we went to Molokini Crater… oh, and free. But breakfast and lunch were not included. We saw a couple of eels and even this huge silver and blue fish. But did you know there are no anemones in Hawaii’s waters? I, at least, saw none. Just a whole bunch of urchins. We did get to see a lot of box puffers (on both days) which are little and a brilliant blue on the sides while black and white spotted on the top.
After our 2nd snorkel trip.
My Kids and Me
I have had the above image on my website’s info page for too long. I was pregnant with Ezra, and we still had about 4 months in Boston. It was taken by our friend Ryuji Suzuki with my then new Mamiya 6 rangefinder camera. Ahh those were the days of film and fun medium format rangefinders.
The other image of me floating around in cyberspace is this one taken in college. My friend Christian Romero shot it for a class project. He used 6 florescent tubs for light. Pretty cool effect. Christian also photographed our wedding… coming up on 11 years now!
Even though I love these images, it is time for a change. So yesterday I decided to pull out the tripod and get a few shots with both my kids. Luckily I have an assistant in training. She sat for me so I could focus. Then I had to wake up the monster. He enjoyed watching the light blink and the shutter fire. Too bad it made him smile after the exposure was made!
This was taken before waking the monster
1st shot was beautiful, I thought this would be a piece of cake. Well the final pick is nice, but far from perfect.
Here are a few of the outtakes that really show you what this shoot was all about:
Problems with focus, cropping and those fingers…
You’re supposed to be over here…
Where’s my girl?
Thankfully we are going to have our family portrait taken next week. I can’t wait to see what she does with us. I think all photographers should be photographed at some time or another. I just never have!