Sad Maddie

I’m back from visiting the folks in Minnesota. I didn’t take too many photos, but I did grab this one of a very sad little girl. Madelyn caught a cold during our week with my parents and was miserable a lot of the time. Poor little Bean.

Street Photos – Yucaipa Skate Park

“Excuse me, Mister, but what are you doing here?”

I was a little out of my territory at the Yucaipa Skate Park tonight. I thought I was in Disney’s production of Oliver Twist when this little blonde kid appeared beside me to ask this question. I definitely made all of the kids nervous. Any time I moved to one side of the park to test the light or get a different angle, it cleared out in five minutes. I didn’t get any great photos since the kids treated me like I was about to give them a homework assignment. But I’m eager to go back and try again… and maybe again.

These two were from the other night near market night.

Batman Opening Night

I took my camera out tonight to do some street shooting at our local market night. But as I drove by the movie theater I realized that Batman was opening at midnight tonight, and I had to check it out. I’ve also posted some of the photos on my gallery site under Street Scenes.

There was a crowd lined up all around the theater. I can’t wait to see it on Monday night!

People were lined up nearly 24 hours before showtime. These guys were smart enough to bring a couch for their wait. I wonder what friend they conned into taking the couch back home while they went to the movie.

There were several people that were fans on a completely different level than most.

Check this guy out. Seriously takes the cake tonight!

Not to worry. The prince of Gotham was there too.

Even Batman gets bored waiting in line.

Family shoot in Santa Monica (part 3 of 3)

Finally, the last of the Santa Monica photos. You can see the entire gallery at my gallery site.

I loved this image of the invincible 8-year-old boy challenging the entire ocean.

I think it was a tie.

This is what an eight-year-old does with a back massager from the Brookstone.

Family shoot in Santa Monica (part 2 of 3)

Well, I thought that I could get the rest of the photos from Santa Monica processed tonight, but I just couldn’t stand sitting in front of the computer any longer. So I took a break and watched The Great Debaters. The final installation from last Saturday will have to come tomorrow.

Let’s see, where did we leave off? Oh yeah, my nephew was done with photos and was sprinting toward the shoreline. But before he got his legs under him, he took a little airplane tour.

His mother made him come back to pick up his sandals.

Once he was in…

He was all in!

“Swimsuit? We don’t need no stinkin’ swimsuit.”

More tomorrow!

Family shoot at Santa Monica (part 1)

I have a memory of my niece that I will never forget. I was a senior in high school, and my niece was about a year old. For whatever reason, I laid down on the living room floor. My niece, sucking vigorously on her pacifier, came crawling over to where I was, stood herself up against my side, and stared at me. I picked her up and laid her down on my chest. She immediately let out a big sigh, closed her eyes, and fell asleep within minutes. It was awesome. I laid there for a long time. That was eleven years ago, and now that little girl is quite tall (in my opinion) for a sixth grader.

My sister and her two kids (ages 8 and 12) came out to visit Jill and me last week for a few days. On Saturday, we decided to head out to Santa Monica to spend the day at the beach. We had a great time!

My nephew wasn’t so much for the whole posing for photos thing…

So instead he pulled on his sister’s hair.

“Ok, it’s time for a break from photos,” I said. And he was outta there!

Babies love prunes

A couple of weeks ago my wife posted a few photos of Madelyn and her prunes on our personal blog. The photos were very popular… infamously popular. From the volume of comments we’ve received about those prunes, I thought people might be interested in seeing the prunes from the other end. It strikes me that the prunes look just about exactly the same in pre-production as they do in post-production.