Current Photos

A Bit About HDR

The photos posted below are recent ones that I took using a technique called high dynamic-range or HDR. For any of you that are interested in photography, to do HDR you need to take a minimum of three different exposures and then merge the images with special software. A process called tonemapping then allows you to more realistically capture the broad exposure range that your eyes see but the camera doesn't. Cool, huh?

Baby Waiting Patiently

Slide-show

I set up a slide-show on my new cell phone and I thought it was so cool that I had to post it here as well.

Claire, Katie and Marin

Katie and Baby Marin

Baby Marin

Claire Again

Claire (Otherwise Known as the One What is Six)

Claire Hoping to be the Next Hannah Montana

This evening Claire was complaining that she needed me to buy her more Chapstick. I reminded her that I just gave her a tube recently and she must have lost it.

Claire then tried to explain her inability to keep her Chapstick saying, "It's just hard because I have two little sisters." I asked what that had to do with anything and she had to admit that the baby wasn't the problem. Her five year-old sister is the problem. She continued to complain saying, "Katie's the devil."

Some days I might agree with that. Just depends on the day.

Baby Marin on Thanksgiving Day

My Girls

This is an older picture of Claire and Katie. I took it about a year ago.

My Son William

My youngest son turned 16 last week. Pretty cute, huh?

Baby Marin and Her Sisters

Little Girls

Katie was watching TV this morning and I saw that there was a commercial for a doll. Katie used to play with dolls all the time and that was the only kind of toy that she ever wanted. Then she had a new baby sister that she thinks is WAY better than any doll. So now her dolls reside in the toy box, all but forgotten.

Me- “Do you think that you might like to have that doll for your birthday?”

Katie- “No.”

Me- “Well, what do you think that you would like to get then?’

Katie’s face lights up and she gets all excited- “Pink shoes what snap open and then snap closed again! And a pink skirt and a pink shirt!”
(‘What’ is not a typo. See this for an explanation of how Katie talks).

Little girls are so much different from little boys. When my boys were little, they always wanted to look at toys any time we went shopping. The girls never even suggest that. I’m not sure that they even know that Target has a toy section. If they do know, they certainly don’t care. They just want to look at the clothes and the shoes.

They love buying new clothes and can’t wait to get home and try things on. Since they are so close in age, they can wear the same size in most things and they love to trade, each taking turns trying on each item. I have to assume that this is normal for girls. I have never tried to discourage an interest in toys. They just happen to prefer clothes.

I had Claire downtown a few days ago and she saw an article of clothing that she was admiring. I didn’t realize that she was even paying attention since we weren’t shopping for clothes at the time.

As soon as we got in the car, Claire started talking about clothes, so excited that she was almost breathless, “Mommy, I saw the most FABLIOUS coat! Can we buy it?”

I explained that it was a grown-up coat but she still wasn’t discouraged. She wanted to buy it anyway and save it until she was a grown-up. It was just that fablious.

And that never goes out of style.

Two of My Favorite Girls

A Picture I took of My Neighbor

It makes me laugh.

New pictures

Another one that I'm working one.

Photograph

Here is a picture that I have been working on today.