Punkin & Buddy do Easter Crafts

The joys of divorce are having your children only one weekend out of two. This being the case in my life holidays is a challenge. Without some planning simple things like Easter egg hunts or even coloring them can be a challenge. Because of this split I have not had them on Easter for a number of years. This year we have a pleasant surprise of having the bunny visit our house and I was pretty much-caught off-guard. Thankfully my spouse was not. She had gone to the store earlier in the week and picked up some Easter egg coloring tools. Friday being an “off” day from school we set out to see what color we would make them eggs.


Punkin was up early on Friday and she sounded like the proverbial “when are we going to get there” child. About every 10 minutes I would get asked. Since some necessities like eating and bathing have to be done each day, by the time we started it was long past when she wanted to be egg dunking.

Buddy had to be coaxed from a DVD he was watching Larry Boy. The DVD was in the spirit of the season; it was a Veggie Tale story. A good compromise to getting him to the table was a pair of whoopee sticks. He would have rather pounded on the table with his whoopee sticks, then color eggs, but at least it was a start. Oh, and yes they are whoopee sticks. These would be a gag gift courtesy of my wife. I do wonder what would have happened if I had purchased them.

So all the while Punkin is dunking eggs into the dye, Oh, note to the readers combine dye, whoopee sticks and 8-year old boy at your own risk! So Punkin dunks eggs Buddy smacks his stick. Each egg has to lay in the dye for 3-4 minutes and I can hear the Jeopardy music in my head, but it seems to be this odd farting noise in my ears. The farting noise was courtesy of whoopee sticks being pounded on the table by my son. Again dye and pounding on the table ramp up the fear factor quotient.

Buddy would have been happy to stop, but that would mean the chants of, “Larry Boy” would then start. Parenting in these moments is all about compromise. I was under the idea that this was family time and damn if we weren’t going to do this as a family!! Each egg dunk would mean more farting from the sticks, when the sticks didn’t hit the table then he hit himself with them. When he wasn’t smacking with the sticks then he was trying to gouge out eyeballs with the metal egg dunker. Didn’t Paas know that tiny metal devices could gouge out eyes? Each time a “put that down” escaped from Dad’s mouth, then Buddy would say, “Larry Boy”

In this test of wills I was going to win, he was going to sit-up and enjoy dunking the damn eggs into these color-coded containers. He was not going to watch Larry Boy, he was going to color eggs! Triumphant as I wanted to be, what I was really hoping for was the dye to not spill all over the floor.

As you might expect Punkin painstakingly crafted each egg to perfection. Each was different and had a different idea behind it. One used rubber bands, the next glitter; still another had stickers and multiple color combinations. Buddy dunked each one in the same color, the exact same color. I guess he was going through his green phase. I did finally get him to draw with the wax crayon on an egg so it had a design, it was however still green. When you see the pictures of the eggs however they aren’t all green. Dad had his own ideas on coloring, Buddy would point to green dad would dunk it in something else.

After four eggs and countless times listening to Larry Boy being repeated for my listening pleasure, the pounding of the farting stick as well as the terror at dye being dumped all over the floor I let Buddy head out. Punkin didn’t seem to acknowledge whether Buddy was there or not. She just kept crafting her egg one sticker at a time. With one egg left to go and Dad having not colored a single one. Buddy was relieved of duty to find Larry, Curly, Moe or possibly Shemp. I set to work putting together this last and final egg. The gesture though cheesy is true. I wrote on my egg I ❤ Punkin & Buddy with the wax crayon. It looked great in green.

Where else can I get this sort of fun?

Leaders are Readers

Leaders are Readers

Today was Leaders are Readers day at school.  When this was first announced I asked my daughter Punkin  if she would like me to read.  She was very excited, though I have been to school often for her it is always an event.  Not truly being a “leader” but in the broadest of definitions I contacted her teacher to see if I qualified.  She was more than happy to have me come in.  For the school this is a big event so I did my best to also make it an event.  

I received multiple numbers of handouts with the company that I worked for to help.  We even had some Teacher notes on each of the handouts to help her plan to use it in a lesson plan.  I received samples from multiple customers and I prepared what I thought would be an interesting speech to help explain how I use reading every day in my job.  All of this would culminate with my story of choice, The Little Engine that Could.

This book was one of my favorites growing up.  Something about that little blue engine pulling those cars up the mountain just appealed to me.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. That was truly the whole story to me back then.  Even today I get misty eyed just thinking about that little engine pulling those cars up the mountain all with the power of believe.

Both of my children struggle with reading.  Buddy may never be able to read a full sentence without visual clues.  With the pictures he does an excellent job of reading about 5 words.  It has taken a lot of effort in his 8 years to get him this far.  Punkin has had a bit of a struggle to.  As a parent I know trying to get buddy from one milestone to the next has been a constant challenge, I just assumed with Punkin it would just happen.  Well it doesn’t.

So she has been challenged at each corner and me I love to read always have.  It’s one of my great losses since I have had children is my lack of reading time.  Just isn’t enough time, Punkin has inherited my love of reading and she has the time, but her comprehension of reading is far better than her ability to read.  Because of this what she likes to read are multi-chapter stories and what she is able to read are simpler stories.

So she sits and she struggles and about every 5th or 6th word she has to ask for what this means or that means.  She doesn’t seem to mind so neither does Kate or myself.  We feed her the word or ask her to sound it out and the story continues. 

I don’t feel like much of a leader in reading, one child struggles because I thought it was all going to be Ok.  The other may not be able to look at anything other than picture books.  They both try though and they keep moving forward. 

For those that don’t know the story it starts with a train that is off the tracks and needs help getting over the hill.  Two other engines turn the boys and girls and a clown rather rudely and one proclaims itself too old to hall the little train over the mountain.  Finally a train that is used as a switching engine answers the call and hooks itself up to the little train and chugs it’s way up the hill.  All the way up the hill the train says, “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.” 

As you might expect, this is a children’s book and not a greek tragedy, the little blue engine finds it’s way up the hill and all the dolls and toys are very happy.  The little boys and girls on the other side of the hill get all the toys and food.  We the reader get a lesson.  You have to try and you have to believe and you just might accomplish.

That truly is the crux of this story.  Believe you can and you just might, have too much pride or believe you are too old and the little children on the other side of the mountain don’t get there dolls and toys.  Simple story and a simple lesson, one that still resonates with me even today, maybe even more so.

Later that same day I stroll into my son’s classroom.  I repeat the same speech except simpler, everything is simpler there.  I look out at my audience.  In Punkin’s class I had rapt attention to each topic.  As I walked around the classroom I had each students attention.

Buddy’s class however is a bit different.  As I enter I put an FM microphone around my head so one girl can hear me.  Most of the children barely pay attention.  Still another has to listen to something.  One can’t get her picture taken.  My son sit’s plopped on my lap just happy to have Dad there.  I love my son’s classroom.  They are the epitome of the story I read to them. 

Each day they walk in and go through the same motion with just a little progress being made, but each day they try.  I can’t help but get lost in the story as I read it to them.  Maybe one of them is paying attention, but when I end they all clap, they all cheer, they pat me on the back and some ask when I will be back to read to them.  I always say soon.

I look amongst my son’s class and think they aren’t the dolls and toys on the train, they aren’t the clown nor are they the boys and girls on the other side of the hill, each of them in their own way is that little blue engine, chugging the car up the track and each says every day.  “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.”

Special Olympics Takes a Hit

I’m slightly disappointed this morning as I watched the news.  I was riding my bicycle at the health club something I’m not fond of anyway, but as most know that read this I find myself having to take a break from my morning runs due to a hurt Achilles.  Hopefully in 3 weeks time I will be back out there pounding the pavement.

The good news is that it has gotten me working out with weights once again at the local gym.  On one such visit I found myself mindlessly staring at the TV watching Obama talk on the Jay Leno show about a wide range of topics. 

The subject of his bowling came up and Jay poked a little fun at him for his lack of ability on the lanes.  President Obama then made a crack that said it was “It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something.” 

Or something is correct.  As I sat on my bike peddling away I winced.  Not the worst thing I have heard for certain.  It saddens me somewhat to think that an intelligent man like Obama when asked a simple question and when he wants to poke fun at himself the arrow in his brain that whirls around for humor.  The little dial that we all have reaches into the slot that says, “Make fun of intellectually and physically handicapped people”

There are many directions my little missive could take me from there.  I could talk about the comments of Jimmy “the Greek” Snyder.  He lost his job and justifiably so for his comments and linking sports performance to slavery. 

Don Imus is another who lost his job for his comments about black women and a derisive comment about their looks.

I don’t expect to compare the two above incidents with what President Obama said, his comments weren’t in the same league as what Mr. Imus and Mr Snyder said.  Still I get back to the twirling humor wheel in his head.  He didn’t reach for something uplifting as a 3rd grader could beat him.  He reached for people most conceived with physical, emotional and mental handicaps. 

From many reports Obama apologized quickly to the Chairman of the Special Olympics Tim Shriver even before the show was aired.  I applaud him for recognizing quickly that what he said was demeaning.  Oddly enough he had met with Maria Shriver the daughter of Eunice Shriver who founded Special Olympics the day before.  I’m sure his apology had help  from many of his handlers, but regardless he did apologize.

I would have thought he would have learned something from the race he was in against McCain and Palin just a few short months back.  Sarah Palin’s own child has Down Syndrome.  He also is a person of color and has grown up with many iconic moments culminating for many with his election as President.  I go back to his spinning wheel for humor.  His wheel not only stops, but he embraces at making fun of people who in most instances like him didn’t have any choice, but to be who they are, act how they act and compete at the highest level they are able and succeed.

You should apologize and not just to the leader of an organization, but to each person that competes.  You should however not just apologize, but that spinning wheel shouldn’t have stopped on that spot. 

Mr. President you should know better.

You can read more about this issue here.

Photo of the day: Warren Township, IL

I am fortunate. My son having Down Syndrome gets me an instant in to the school. Most people know him. He can't tell me about most of the people that he meets in a day, but when I go to school I meet them all. I mean every single one. At least once.

I was at school today for a Family Fitness Open House. The opportunity is for me to come in and observe and participate in his gym glass. Tyler's gym glass is an integrated class so there is probably 40 children without disabilities and then the 7 that are in Tyler's class. He is always very excited to see me come to class.

When I arrive Tyler has to individually take me around to each adult and introduce me as his father. This always happens like this.

Tyler: Yoooong, Yooong, he yells out and grabs her by the hand. He then grabs my hand and gives it to her and moves it up and down in a shaking motion. He then says Yooong, Daad....Daad, Yooong.

We go around to every adult and some form of their name is uttered and I shake all of their hands. Tyler knows them all and I must get to meet them. It is truly without choice. So when I attend class it is always an event and since I'm there at least a couple dozen times throughout the year I know everyone. The above conversation takes place whether or not I have met them before or a 100 times before. It's exaclty as if I have never met them.

Truly one of the joys of having Tyler as a son, is each meeting is like this and each is always a happy. He stands there grinning and laughing like a greeter at the Casino just waiting to take your money. One person down and 10 more to go. I shake all their hands like a politician. Happy at each one.

I have been asked how do I convert these images that I post. I will attempt to each list how the photo was creatd and which piece of software that I used.

This Photo was take with the D700 and the 70-300VR lens, the NEF was converted in Capture NX2 using the Nik Color Efex 3.0 B&W conversion and grain plug-in. I then saved it as a jpg and posted.

Please comment and thanks for looking.

A Birthday Gift

A Round of Golf, Some Quality Pool Time and a Bit of Self Reflection

How a serendipitous round of golf and an afternoon watching Buddy splash at the local pool caused some personal discovery

I was in Iowa this past summer for work. I had plenty of spare time before my flight so I decided to fit in a round of golf .I had recently read an article on the 100 best golf courses to play and one of the courses on the list, The Harvester, was nearby.

Unfortunately, I did not pack my clubs for this trip. I feel it's almost too costly to fly with your golf clubs anymore, but for some reason I did have my shoes. The course was mostly vacant with only a few people playing at two o'clock in the afternoon so, armed with a set of rental clubs, I went off to play.

Admittedly, this was a treat. There are moments my job allows me to do things that I love and this was one of those moments. I mean who wouldn't want to play a course that was not only beautiful, but also had bales of hay sitting next to the holes that reminded me of Midwestern sunsets and seemed to glow in the soft, low light. The holes had names like "Big Hog" , “The Sickle”, “Holy Cow” and my personal favorite “Serendipity” and it was a lovely course-- a great facility.

I started off slow with my rented Cobra clubs. I didn't care for the putter much and had some issues with driving. I was playing from the blue tees (I'm not up to playing this course from the longest tee) but after I was warmed up things improved. If it weren't for an errant tee shot on #9 that left me in the mud next to the water (7 strokes -- drat!) things would have been even better.

With a total of 41 strokes on the front, I made my way to the back nine. Teeing off on #10 I felt as though I had found my groove! I've learned from my children, when The King finds a new groove (or, in my case, an old one) good things happen!

As I rolled through the "Big Hog" I needed birdie on this last hole to break 80. I didn't get it but still, not bad in my book for rental clubs and a guy who only plays twice a month at best. All in all, a great day.

I moseyed (Iowa term) up to the clubhouse to get me some grub. I decided to eat outside overlooking the same 18th hole where a few moments earlier elation had filled me.

While sitting on the deck enjoying a fine glass of wine I was given time to reflect. I had run a footrace a few days earlier. Only a 5k, but for the first of the season it was more than enough distance wise. The course was a simple back and forth through a neighborhood in Libertyville, IL. My time was a respectable 24:32. One mile was even below 8 min. I couldn't have been more pleased with how I did. Being 41, one has to take these moments as they come.

I'm doing my best in this missive to not sound arrogant. I didn't feel arrogant during any of these moments. I have been blessed in many parts of my life and I am and should be a very grateful person.

I sat on the overlook enjoying my meal and was quite overwhelmed with my life. Here I was at 41, married to a beautiful woman who I loved, children that I couldn't be more pleased with. I had just ran the week before a sub 8 min mile and wonder of all wonders I had just shot (almost) 80 on a great golf course. Life on this day had dealt me all Aces. Filled with gratification I finished my meal, jumped in my car and drove to my hotel. I was certain that life couldn't get any better.

I arrived home and got back to the daily grind. I have written and commented before many times about my son, Buddy. He loves to swim. Every Monday I attempt (when I am not traveling) to take him to the pool near our house to take a swimming class. The class is for people with disabilities. You get to meet, talk with and see all sorts of people living with different disabilities.

I once had a woman I was talking with tell me that Buddy had the "Cadillac" of disabilities. Her child suffered from a congenital disorder known as Aperts Syndrome. I was not aware there was a "Cadillac" of disabilities, but I agree I have been fortunate.

On this Monday just days after my exultation on the golf course, I was still hanging on to the glow of the week before. I have to admit I was filled with much pride as I watched my son swim. He splashes around in the pool while being pulled around in a fashion by another person who moves his arms and legs in the proper way to allow him to swim. His swimming, like many things in his life, has vastly improved. Currently he likes to dunk his head and he can do a pretty good doggy paddle. Like any boy his age, mostly he just likes to play.

On this day, In the shadow of my glow, I noticed a father bringing his son into the pool. His son had Cerebral Palsy. For those that are not familiar with this disability, it gets progressively worse as you get older. The really difficult thing is the mind stays intact inside a body that no longer works.

This father lifted his 11-year-old son from his wheelchair and placed him in the pool. My guess is the boy at one point could crawl. Today he could wheel himself around a little in his wheelchair. Tomorrow he will have a motorized wheelchair controlled by the touch of a gentle hand that barely moves.

I sat on my bench watching my son.

This father pulled his son from one end of the pool to the other on his . There are toys all around to play with and his son made a subtle motion with his hand towards one of the toys, a stuffed floating clown. The father carried him over and picked up the clown. The boy made another subtle motion upward. The father put the clown on his head. He had very little hair and was now wearing a clown hat.

He started carrying his son once again on his back through the water sometimes fast and other times slow. The clown finally fell off... and the boy smiled. It was a gentle smile, not large, not toothy. The dad then picked up the clown again and dropped it on top of his head. He pulled his son through the water and the clown fell off again. The boy's face broke into an even larger smile. The father just stopped in the water, collected the clown and started putting it on his head and would move in such a way that it would again fall off.

The boy would smile and the father would stand there holding his son up on his back, putting the clown on his head and watching him smile. This went on for some time. The clown on the father’s head, looking down at his son, his arm and legs twisted and bent, an eternal bend. His arthritic body even at 11 had very little motion left. A few fingers supplying movements on where to put the clown and the son smiling every time it fell from his dad's head.

After awhile the father grew tired from carrying his son around the pool and grabbed a large Styrofoam mat on which to place him. He moved his son around on the mat carrying him as though he were in a boat. The clown still on his head, he now starts motor boating his boy around the pool. The clown would fall and the son would smile and the dad would place it once again on his head.

This same scene played out over and over for the 45min swim period allotted to each swimmer.

My son’s swimming has steadily improved each week; he now dunks his head and can swim underwater. He loves the underwater parts. He may never do a crawl or a breaststroke or maybe his muscles might "get it" someday and he will. Time will tell.

I watched this father and his son and I realized this may be as good as it gets for them. His boy may always be able to smile and as long as the father can carry his son, he will be able to take him to the pool. They will always be able to share “swimming” together.

I sat on the bench looking at my son play and realized, as I looked at this father's day and saw the enormity of his life and what already he and his son had accomplished together... in this father's devotion he showed me... I'm not that good.

Digital Photography and a Journey into Buddy's World

My son's recent and growing fascination with digital photography has enabled us to communicate in a way I didn't think we'd ever be able to.



Most of you know about my son's growing interest in digital photography. It started with my desire to memorialize his first experience while he was in costume play-acting -- a costume designed by his teacher and performed in at a school play. After seeing the whole outfit, I could have kissed his teacher for encouraging his creativity.

From his earliest pictures (posted here) Buddy has slowly but surely grown into a hobby photographer, normally he just takes the camera from me! Ever the one to justify my own guilty habits, for Christmas Buddy received his first digital camera, a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ8. It fits perfectly in his hands although it can be a challenge to his fine motor skills to adjust some of the settings. (I am, after all, a part time therapist)

He wasn't sure what to make of this gift when it arrived, he was used to seeing Dad's large DSLR's instead of this little pocket thing. After a quick run through of all the controls he dove right in -- taking pictures of most everything. He has steadily progressed in his understanding of the camera's multiple controls.

Reading a camera manual is difficult for some adults and is outside of the realm of Buddy's current capabilities. Any explanation is either explained by a convenient adult figure or worked out on his own. He hasn't discovered the movie mode on his camera yet. What he has figured out though is how to take pictures and he snaps 100s of them

Most know the challenges Buddy faced when he came into this world. Though I haven't blogged about these stories -- blogging didn't even exist when Buddy was born -- instead I hammered out my thoughts and feelings on the word processor. As any parent to a child with disabilities knows, your world rearranges itself once you realize your child's condition. It has to. But in those 14 hours when Buddy's and my life was normal, -- like any other new parent I planned for so many things in his life, for him to be everything I wasn't.

He is going to be a better golfer than I am, I thought, as he clutched my finger only hours after birth. He is going to be popular, where I considered myself nothing more than a geek at best. He was, in those 14 hours, everything I wasn't. A new and better Chris. Chris -- Improved.

A parent to a child with disabilities also has to let all of those things go. Even in the “normal” world, in my imagination. As he grew, Buddy was going to lose the pro-golfer status, the chance to be a world famous author, President or sports star. (I must admit, the geek in me thought about bowling instead of football. I couldn't help myself -- we are who we are!) In Buddy’s world, it all happened much too quickly. In a flash they were gone.

My dreams for Buddy changed a whole lot sooner than most. It was hour 15 after his birth, as the doctor strolled out of our room, five minutes after telling us that our lives were going to be a bit different than we planned. As abruptly as this realization came to us, it's a surprisingly healthy thing, though I wouldn't have said so at the time .

Slowly some of the things that I thought Buddy would never have in his life have come. Not in the way I expected, but there nonetheless. I call this "Buddy's World" and it's different there. Things do overlap, but it's a different place.

I enjoy Buddy's world, but I have always wished I could better understand how he sees the world, to help me be a better parent for him. In Buddy's World you hum when drying off with a towel; you push your face against the TV to feel the static electricity. (When we got the DLP this ended though---drat!) We stand and go through sliding doors by moving one step out of range and then step forward and then step back again. We don't do this once, we do it many times. A lot of fun in Buddy's world is rediscovering the simple things time and time again. Perhaps the most joy comes from the fact that these things are usually forgotten by him and so can be rediscovered again the next day.

Buddy can barely talk, though that skill is improving in leaps and bounds. He will likely never share my past time of reading although we are hopeful he will learn how to read someday. He and I have played golf and Buddy can now make the 3-footers that I struggle with. In some ways he is still Chris Improved.

Photography allows Buddy to communicate in ways that he would not be able to otherwise. What matters to him. We all take pictures for not only the art and beauty of things, but to document our lives. To show the world that these are the things I wanted to save.

Buddy takes photos of what he saw and, for whatever reason, interested him. Looking at these photos is as close as I can get to "being" Buddy... to understand his world as he sees it. A recent search of one of Buddy's photo galleries uncovered six pictures of me, three of Kate and four of Punkin'. There were, however, 28 pictures of Wall-E. Photos taken from all angles, macro shots and even a Lensbaby type shot. How he did the latter I don't have a clue, but it's there, soft focus and everything.

He even uses his camera as a tool to communicate better. Recently, Buddy came running downstairs, pointed to the LCD on the camera and said, "Milk." Buddy has photographed his milk glass and it was indeed empty. Another time he showed the picture of the VCR box of The Jungle Book which he pointed at and said, "Watch."

Now, in case his former teacher reads this, the first time this happened it was cute and we let it slide. The next time however, we chuckled, told him how smart he was, but then made him walk through the whole sentence. Such is Buddy's World.

In-between Buddy's show and tell, he takes pictures. Hundreds of them. Pictures of me, his sister and all of the things that matter to him. Some I can't figure out, some are of stuffed animals and others are of the TV screen itself to preserve favorite spots of a movie.

I will admit to doing this myself when I was little older than Buddy. With me though, it was James Bond movies... how cool it was with him skiing down a hill or when he was shot into space with the metal teeth guy. This was with a film camera though, and it was of different shows. Star Trek, the doomsday device (I also did a voice recording of that one). And before you laugh -- this WAS the days before VCRs!

I have enclosed Buddy's digital photography pictures here. I posted them all unedited since I don't think he is too concerned about culling them. I'm not sure he even understands at this point. Plus, I don't want to trash an image he might later consider keepsake or any of his images for that matter. Enjoy a peek into Buddy's World.

Me, I'm just happy.

The Photographer

There was a time I wondered if this day was ever going to happen. Well it has. My son has picked up yet another of my guilty habits. He is now a photographer. This is far better than smacking butts, especially of the girl down the block (yikes!) Not me him! Though it seems that the camera is as large as he is, he grabs it and wants to take my picture. Who would have thought when he started out so long ago that pictures just might be what he excels at. From the grip on him at birth, I thought it might be golf.

Sure I set up the camera so it focuses on the closest object and maybe an S5 or D300 is a bit much for a 8 yr old to handle, but he seems to understand, he picks up the camera, puts the strap around his neck and clicks away. No training, no nothing. He just clicks away and some turn out quite well. He even coaches his model with little words of more and come-on. Seems like not too long ago I was changing his diapers or when he was born and I thought he had a good grip for golf. Well, I'm just grateful that he hangs onto the camera.

Good stuff!

Below is the link to see Buddy's efforts at picture taking. Notice the photo-journalist type of tilt to the above picture? That kinda stuff you just can't teach! He has most of the rest of the pictures start here. Dad processed them though of course in Aperture. I did not crop though. You can enjoy my efforts of the Lake County Buddy Walk 2008 in slideshow format here.

Comments are appreciated either here or at Smugmug. Thanks!

Playing in the Leaves

I love those moments as a parent where something is unplanned, it just happens and both the parent and the children enjoy it. I try to listen to my children where fun is allowed. As I have gotten older I find that I have less and less just plain-old fun. Not to say that my life isn't full, but after I turned 40 I find that I just start falling apart. Simple things that I used to do, I don't do with the reckless abandon of childhood. I have and probably will again hurt myself. I get cautious. On these things I need my children to remind me of what "fun" really is and more importantly how simple it is to have it.

The leaves have started to fall here in Illinois. Our yard has some 6 50-60 yr old Oaks in it. Needless to say I know leaves, they aren't however friends of mine. About 4-5 times a year I have to rake up a pile that ends up being about 8 ft square and about 4 foot high. I mostly think at the end of this, boy had I been younger I would love to have played in that pile of leaves. Well that day has come. My children had occasion to help me move this pile around the yard. As you can imagine as this pile grows it gets more and more difficult to move it with a rake. Punkin had her rake and she was getting all of the leaves from behind the plants and putting them out into the grassy yard. Buddy wanted to help, with Buddy though, you never quite know what type of help to expect. He can sometimes be more of a distraction than real help. In this case though he had a spark of genius in him.

Since all the rakes were used up he walked into the shed and grabbed the first thing that came to his mind. He brought out the large broom and was going to sweep up the leaves. One can only imagine an 8-yr old boy with a broom trying to move leaves. His first attempt moved them more into the freshly raked yard, making a larger mess. After a chastise from Dad, he got going into the correct direction. For some reason this didn't work much for him. The broom was discarded after only a few moments of use. He then disappeared into the shed and out he comes with a snow shovel! The old man did not give this much more hope than the last genius plan he had concocted. I sold him short though.

He started pushing the leaves into the middle of the yard moving the large pile with some ease. I praised him for his ingenuity and was grateful that his help, was actually helpful. Punkin not wanting to miss an opportunity wanted to trade her rake with Buddy for the shovel. Buddy had nothing to to with this. Buddies attention span is more like that of a 3 year old which is about 3 minutes so after the allotted time he moved on and Punkin scraped up the shovel and went about shoveling the leaves. I will admit to some pride as all of us moved the leaves down towards the house in the back yard.

With all of the hard work done, Punkin an Buddy wanted to play in the leaves. They dove in, buried themselves, threw leaves here an there and generally just loved running and jumping into the pile. Then Punkin wanted me to join in. As some might recall early this summer we all had a running start and jumped into the water at a Wisconsin lake house we had the pleasure to stay at. Well Punkin wanted to re-create this fun, in this case though the old man was worried about falling on the ground and the leaves not breaking his fall. Well guess what, they do. You don't see pictures of this, but for a 40 year old leaves are just as much fun, if not "funner" when shared with your children. Remind me to stop being such a curmudgeon the next time please.

On to some other details. After my last set of images I had a number of comments about culling and them being OOF (out of focus) I will admit that I struggle to cull my images many times, mostly because of who I share them with. I have many times had an image that I almost through away but, when it is seen through someone elses eyes, it takes on a new light for them than it did for me. That is why I like feedback. In this case and in the Tiny Trains post. I struggle because most of the images are OOF and since in most cases it tells somewhat of a story for relatives, I keep more photos than I would normally because it shows what we did and how it looked. Now what I have on my wall is completely different. What's on the wall is not what is always online.

The bain of my pictures seems to be focus, I continually forget how fast children move and my own steadying abilities. All of these shots were taken with a flash, but the other thing I am always guilty of is trying to get a very shallow depth of field. I love good bokeh. These pictures suffer from what is in my head and what I can actually produce. Later in the series I got smart. I shot these with an 85mm lens at f2.2 on my S5. Silly. You are not going to get in-focus shots of a moving target even with AF with that tiny of DOF (depth of field) Stop down a few more stops and the background will still be blurred and you will have in-focus children. You think I would learn.

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Thanks for looking!

You can find the gallery here.

The slideshow can be found here.

How a Picture Evolves

I've had many people ask about the picture of Buddy I posted in the last blog. So, I thought I'd take a minute to let you know how that shot came to be.

I have spent much time reading two important blogs. One is Strobist and the other is David Tejada's blog. I highly recommend both blogs. Anyone can learn much from either site. I will admit that I am guilty of not reading Strobist much anymore. David Hobby was the first though to give me the creative spark that I could actually take a picture with these small pocket-sized light sources. David Tejada gives many more practical tools and applications to use them in. I will be taking a class this upcoming weekend from David T. so I can't wait to learn many new techniques. I will blog about it when I get back.

Now back to the picture of Buddy. I wanted to keep practicing single strobe lighting. I had dragged along a shoot-through umbrella and also had a very beautiful Voice Activated Lightstand and wanted to try and get a nice shot of either Buddy or Punkin in front of the setting sun. After taking more macros of flowers we moved as fast as we could to the Japanese Garden at the Chicago Botanic Gardens, there is always a lot of good spots to shoot there. We quickly moved along the trail and came to a spot next to the river that runs through the Park. In this case Punkin, who is my normal model, was sulking and hiding in the dark. I asked Buddy and he seemed very excited to have his picture taken. I was using the D3 as well as the SU-800. My VAL, was holding an SB-800 and and umbrella (isn't she talented) off of camera left. I also had the Stofen diffuser on top of the SB-800. I found a spot for Buddy to stand to try and frame him and also capture the last of the glow of the setting sun. I got a series of pictures of which this was the best of that bunch. As for one reason (already discussed in a previous blog) and for various other reasons, Buddy is 8 & he doesn't like to sit still, so this is a rare and short-lived opportunity. This is the shot right out of the camera converted to .jpg from Aperture.



From Aperture I round-tripped into Capture NX. The reason I do this is because I love Nik Control Points. Yes I could purchase Viveza from Nik for Aperture for $245, but why when I could get a much more full-featured program and even better control points with using Capture NX. That would normally cost only $189 (a nice savings over Viveza), but I had an upgrade price of ~$119. I am all about saving money. In this case the control points allow you to selectively control anything in the program. Noise Reduction, sharpening and even Nik Color Efex 3.0. I mean anything you might want to do. Truly a remarkable piece of software and I highly recommend it.

When I sized up where I would like to use this program feature, I started with the background. First, I boosted up the setting sun with a Control Point (CP) on that part of the sky. I added some warmth and also some redness. I did a matching CP in the reflection in the water. This allowed them to look similar. Then I did some spot NR on Buddy's face as well as in the sky - I was at ISO 12,800 after all! I only had NR in those areas...that is the advantage of using Capture NX. The next step was to put another CP on Buddy's face to take out some of the redness and boost contrast. After removing the redness, I added back some warmth to give him a nice glow.

After looking at the picture I realized I wanted to get rid of some of the light surrounding him, I wished I had snooted the light while on location, but with CP's I can easily adjust the amount of Brightness. I put 3 or 4 CP's around Tyler in the areas where I felt I needed to bring the Brightness down. After adjusting those CP's down, I got the final effect that you see at the top. This may sound like quite a bit of work, but with Control Points, well it was about 5 minutes (less time than it took to write it out). Everything was targeted and easy.

Why, Such a Camera!

With apologies to my wife for such a poor title. I get asked this question quite often: Wow, that's a big camera... are you a pro? Although I have spent much of my lifetime trying to take better pictures, I am indeed not a pro. But, I do like cameras. Today's camera makes taking pictures much easier than in past years. Truth be told, I spend far too much money on the cameras I choose to purchase. It is my guilty habit. As men, we all have them. I discussed in a past entry about the X-Chromosome; well, for some reason, having a Y-Chromosome means many things, like enjoying beer, grilling and a dependency on purchasing expensive electronic devices.

As habits go, mine is very bad, but (as I justify to myself) I don't watch much TV, I don't drink much, my best cooking is still at home and I don't feel the need to go and purchase a fast car. (Well not yet.. upon reaching 40 last year that desire for a convertible is gaining strength. I mean, we only go once don't we?)

I do like cameras though, and all of the toys that go along with them. A camera though, unlike many items, has a life... it takes things for memories sake. A picture is worth a thousand words they say and for me that's a small amount.

Above is a picture of my son. I almost always call him Buddy. Here we are at the Botanic Gardens. When some people see this, they may think something like "That is a nice picture." But what I remember is how he patiently stood there and did his best at posing. You see, standing still has not been his strong suit, but he has gotten so much better. His sister, Punkin... (yes with an "n" and not an "mp". Unlike where the link will take you I would never chuck her!) She wouldn't allow me to take the picture with her in it. She was upset about something or another that she wanted to do, but Buddy just stood there, smiled at the voice activated light stand (Kate) and couldn't have been more happy.
Now some may think that I could have taken this with just any camera, but truth is that I couldn't, it is taken at ISO 12,800! Try that with your point and shoot. The camera and the technology does the heavy lifting here, it's a D3. I couldn't have gotten this shot or this memory with any other camera.

I now share with you a nice Lego structure courtesy of Punkin. What I remember about this series is how carefully she put all of these together and presented it to me in it's finished form carefully displaying it on my desk. She said, "Daddy can we take a picture?" I of course was in the middle of work, trying to multi-task and be superdad as well as a world class employee, on these days it always seems as if my children get the short end of the stick. I wish I made different choices, and sometimes I do, but today I didn't. I put her off, I asked her to wait. Later in the day and true to my promise I went to take pictures of the wonderful looking and daintily built structure. I could have just popped a picture with any camera, but wanted something worthy of the art that my daughter crafted and this, of course, again meant using that same D3. I mean she made it herself didn't she?

As I started carefully moving the structure one of the walls collapsed and was now detached from the rest of the building. Then as I went to repair that, well the other side fell over and then next thing I knew the whole top had caved in onto itself and I was left looking at no longer a world class abstract art piece worthy of some placement in front of a City Center, Bank or Museum, but 4 clumps that I had no clue how to put back together. Well what is a father to do in this moment when he has made a promise and now can't fulfill it? Pile it up on his desk and announce that it was time to eat lunch and hope she will forget! So as we are plowing through our bologna sandwiches, drinking our milk and eating a wonderful tasting and somewhat healthy Sun Chip, she leans over and announces to me and Buddy. "Heh Daddy let's go and take some picture of my building!" Now in a moment of weakness and not wanting to disappoint my daughter - who I love dearly - I thought, "Well I can blame it on Buddy, since he can't talk very well he can't quite deny convincingly enough that he didn't do it!" Then I got ahold of myself and realized that I had to set an example. I carefully looked at my daughter and with all of the guilt that I truly felt told her that, "We had a problem." In my head I kept hearing Tom Hanks utter the infamous "Houston" before it. For me it was along the same degree of problem as NASA had. We left the kitchen table to show her the rubble that I had created and as we started walking up the stairs I started to explain to her what had happened. I went into detail to show her how upset I was that I couldn't put it all together so we could get a picture. As I arrived in my office I sat in my chair and picked up the many pieces of the "building" I was waiting for the blow back as I had let my daughter down. Punkin picked up the pieces, jumped into my lap and gave me a big hug, she told me, "That's OK Daddy, I can put it back together." She also let me know that despite my wanton disregard for her art that, " I still love you." She kept hugging me for quite some time. She told me after a bit that she had the same thing happen when she tried to build it and that I had to be careful because it was very delicate. She also reassured me that she could get it back together so we could get a picture.

As you see from the pictures she got it back together and I attended to capturing this piece of art for posterity. Captured at ISO 6400 with available light which only the D3 could do. So while some might only see the cost, I grab onto the memories of that "shot that almost wasn't" and the daughter who made it so easy to tell that "superdad" IS only human.