Dylan: Nine Months!

Dylan had quite a nine month birthday as it landed on Christmas Day. He had fun opening presents, but like all kids he like the wrapping more than the actual gift. This month in the last few weeks he has started to pull himself up. If you stand him up where he can hang on to something he will stand there forever just smiling away. He doesn't even like to sit down any more. When I try to set him down he keeps his legs stiff and will not sit. He should be getting more teeth popping in any day. He is drooling tons and chewing on everything. He also met a girlfriend in Tillamook. Friends of ours have a seven month old. He tried to kiss her and she hit him. They sat together and talked it was very funny. For this month I did naked baby pictures. Who can resists those?

Time to get caught up.

Time has gotten away with me. The holidays have a way of doing that to a person. I was getting ready to blog Dylan's ninth month and realized that I forgot to do his eighth month. So I will do that one first. During the eighth month he was kind of at a stand still for everything. Well except for crawling as he started crawling a little, but only backwards. Pretty funny actually. Here are his pictures from his eighth month shoot. We finally got some snow then so I got to do his first snow shots too.

First Snow, First Light.

A few weeks ago we got a dusting of snow for the first of many for the winter that will amount to several feet of accumulation. It happened over night and it turned out that it was also a great sunrise that morning. So Dylan and I ran out and got a few photos. I love morning light. I think that it is the fog that gets me. Growing up on the coast of Oregon there is no shortage of fog any time of day that I have just not seen anywhere else. I never realized that I actually kind of missed it until I moved away. I think it makes the light even more amazing and ethereal.

Update.

Well my computer is now working, but will not connect to the Internet. Big bummer. I have been having to borrow Cory's computer and transferring pictures is a pain. So hopefully we will get it figure out this week, but Thanksgiving will probably slow things down.

Last week we made a surprise visit to Tillamook for a few days. My Mom had knee surgery and we knew we would not be making it for Thanksgiving so we decided to not tell anyone and stayed for a few days helping out.

In other news I am very excited to announce a new venture for a good friend of mine that I went to photography school with. Natural Connections Photo Workshops is the brain child of Ledra Davis along with two other great instructors I worked with at RMSP. Ledra is an amazing photographer; here work has been a great inspiration for me. She has traveled all over the country photographing the great outdoors and is very knowledgeable. You can find out more information at www.naturalconnectionsphoto.com. You can also become a facebook fan here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Natural-Connections-Photo-Workshops/177340788586. They are giving great discounts on their workshops next year. So check them out and sign up for their mailing list to find out more.

Ledra and I in class.

Computer Probelms : (

I am sorry to report that I am having some technical difficulties right now with my computer. I am hoping to have it resolved early next week. So in the mean time I will not be able to be reached . Thank you for your patience.

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween.

Dylan: Seven Months Old!

Another month has gone by and my little boy is seven months old. He is getting very big and heavy. Carrying him a few blocks kills my arms. No more teeth yet, but he is getting way closer to crawling. He gets on his stomach and inches forward. He is such a wiggle worm and never stops moving now, so I am not looking forward to the full crawl. He laughs all the time now and at random things. Apparently me folding laundry is hysterical to him. He just sits there and laughs and laughs, while I fold all his cloths. I guess this is a typical male for you. Laughing at the woman in his life he has conned into taking care of his dirty stuff. His is also eating everything in sight at this point the kid can't get enough food. He is starting to like fruit now. He loves to share my smoothies. This month we took pictures with Cory's first bow from when he little.

Fall Sunrise.

A few mornings ago I looked out the window and saw some great color starting in the sky. So grabbed Dylan and my camera bag and headed to a spot about five minutes away that I had been eyeballing for a sunrise shoot. There happen to be color in the east side of the sky as well which worked out perfect for another spot 1/4 of a mile down the road with a pond that I had been thinking about for sunsets. So I got the color at the pond and then made my way to the barn with the hay in it. I had noticed the sun was coming up perfectly through the barn about a month ago early one morning on my way to get hay. This morning I got the shot I had been wanting, with the added bonus of what little fall color we have been getting this season. Then I made my way around the valley getting the fog with the warm light of the rising sun.

One Step Closer.

This last week I did something that I have been meaning to do for quite a while. I cleaned out our upstairs living area that we have been using as storage. I moved everything into the empty spare bedroom. The area I cleaned out is a big essentially living room for the upstairs. My office is off of this area. It is big, has hardwood floor, two big windows and a sliding glass door that lets in lots of natural light. I have been wanting to make this area into a studio for a while now. Now that I have it cleared out I am one step closer to making that happen. I am now looking at backdrops for this area. I already have a few props.

I haven't always wanted a studio, but since going to school and taking lighting classes I have been thinking about it more. I ending up liking those classes a lot more than I thought. I was actually not really looking forward to them, lights to me were pretty intimidating. We had a great instructor in Allison Leach though and she helped change my mind about all that. She was very funny and made lighting a whole lot simpler. I learned a lot from her and enjoyed the class immensely. At the end when we had to show our favorite images taken during the class. She told me I had a knack for working with and photographing people. Which was news to me because I had went to school wanting to primarily be a nature and outdoor photographer.

So now I am working towards getting my own studio set up. Having someone who photographs celebrities and shoots for People magazine tell you you have a knack for something can be a real motivator. Not that I still don't love outdoor and natural light photography, but now I will be able to work inside during the very long winter months here. When it is just too cold and snowing way too much to even think about going outside. Next step after the backdrops is lights. Still trying to decide which direction I want to go there, one step at a time though.

Grandma & Grandpa Schmid

This last weekend we had some good weather. I was suppose to be the last nice weather for a few weeks. Cory's Sister and her family were here visiting so Saturday we ended up doing pictures of the grand kids with Grandma and Grandpa. It was perfect afternoon light and pretty falls colors which had the makings of nice photos. The challenge was two babies and three dogs, one of which is a 8 week old puppy. Man did I get some practice working with multiple difficult subjects. The funny things was half the time we would get the kids to look, but Grandma and Grandpa would be too into them to look at the camera. It was fun though and we got some cute pictures for Grandma and Grandpa.

How it all began.

My interest in photography started at a young age. For some reason I have always been fascinated by photographs. My Dad would take these great pictures from his hunting trips. They made me want to know how to compose photos like that. Then there was my sister, the model of the family. She was always dressing up and making me take pictures of her. This all led to me doing my eighth grade career project on photography. My parents had an old Minolta SLR (pictured above) not being used that they let me have. My dad showed me the basics and I taught my self the rest by reading and trial and error. Much trial and error if you look at the album of horrible pictures I have as the end result from that project. And that my friends is how and where my passion for photography began. How about you? Where did you get your passion for the thing you love to do most?

P.S. I just happen to find this camera on my last visit to Tillamook. I had asked my Mom a few weeks before if she knew where it was, which she did not. Then I happen to walk by some storage items and spotted it when I was there.

Dylan: Six Months Old!

My boy is growing up. He can sit up on his own now. He rolls over onto his stomach constantly now, even sleeping on it. Where before he would only scream when on his tummy. He still cries after awhile, but not as bad. He is starting to figure the crawling thing out with his butt up in the air. He is now laughing all the time, mostly at the dogs and pig noises. It is so adorable, but that is probably just the parent in me. He is now a little drool monster, those teeth have got to be coming any time. He loves his veggies, but not the fruit so much. I think he gets that from his daddy. To top it all off he waved bye-bye for the first time yesterday. Now he probably thinks all adults are nuts because that is all anyone tries to get him to do now. I took his photos this last weekend and we got some gorgeous afternoon light. Every time I take new photos of him they are my new favorites, until the next time that is, this time was no exception.

This picture cracks me up to no end. He looks exactly like my dad in it. I swear I have even seen my dad make this face when he was getting a picture taken.

P.S. I was right. We just discovered his first tooth.

Rachel and Steve at the Beach.

Whenever I get over to the coast my short time there is always jam packed with visiting, but I always like to try to get to the beach because I do miss it. This time I combined a quick visit with shooting some more engagement photos of my sister and her fiance. They were goofy as always, but was able to get some great shots anyway. We got some unintentional water shots when we were so preoccupied that we did not notice the waves coming in. It made for some great images.