So Called Myth

I finally had the opportunity to see my younger brother play in one of his two bands, So Called Myth, on July 1st in our hometown of Eveleth, MN.  The lighting was dim, but I managed to grab a few gritty shots.  Here's a sample from the set:

That's my bro featured in the last one.  Nice playing, Trev-man.

Back to work tomorrow

Between this entry and a bunch of recent posts on the Three Peas blog, I've probably been overusing the Hipstamatic app on my iPhone. I can't tell if it's aiding my creativity or stealing it from me, but either way it's pretty addicting to use and I always have my phone with me, so a lot of photos are being generated.

I haven't been writing much of anything lately.  Actually I've been starting and re-starting this entry for six weeks.  Uninterrupted stretches of time are rare and usually filled with more pressing things to do.  Plus, my thoughts have been widely scattered.  Maybe the problem is there's too much to say.  I'm horrible at decisions.  I don't know what to mention and what to leave out.  As a result, you can expect this entry to be a jumbled mess... if it gets finished at all.

I've been on leave from work since early May, which has been great.  I will never forget this time I've shared with Veronica.  She is everything I could possibly want in daughter.  No, that doesn't capture it.  The thousands of photos I've taken of her don't capture it either.  She's this perfect, innocent little being with a personality that is completely her own.  I love the way her face lights up when she sees her favorite book ("Farm Peekaboo").  I love listening to her murmur to herself as she plays with a box.  I love that she laughs at my lame jokes.  I love that she is so curious that she'll try to grab the next thing before letting go of the last.  There is so much more.  She just melts my heart.

There used to be more to this blog entry, but it was too revealing and I ran out of time to properly edit myself.  So I'm scrapping it.  I will leave you with the photos I intended to include. They tell a better story than I can with words anyway.

Minneapolis:

Santa Barbara:

Good night.

Brian and Jenny's engagement photos

A couple of friends are getting married soon and they asked me to shoot their engagement photos. I told them I'm not a professional, which means two things: 1) I couldn't offer a guarantee on quality and 2) I wouldn't accept any compensation.  In the end, they walked away with about 90 shots to choose from (cut down from the 250 I snapped), and I got some experience in the business without the pressure of having to satisfy a paying customer.

Plus, it was fun.  I would do something like this again way before I agree to, say, videotape a wedding, which (at least for me) ends up being a lot more work with less polished results.  I'm not saying I want to dedicate my nights and weekends to volunteer photography jobs, but once in a while I enjoy a creative challenge and I do like the idea of developing my skill set. If you are interested in setting up a free shoot with me, send me an email.

The fine print: I don't have any formal training, I use an entry-level SLR, and Veronica still receives priority booking :-).

2010 recap

2010 was the year little Veronica joined our family. Caring for a baby was a huge change for us and we're still defining the new "normal," but the time since her birth on October 24th has been filled with more joy than I could have possibly imagined. Our first few days with her, in particular, were the best of my life. I will always remember sitting in our sunny living room for hours and hours just watching our Vera-bean sleep. We shut out the rest of the world, listened to a lot of gentle music, and became familiar with this new person. It was absolutely love at first sight, if not earlier.

Most of the rest of the year was spent preparing mentally and physically for Veronica's arrival, but we did manage to travel a bit during the pregnancy with trips to Sonoma county, Washington state, France, and of course Minnesota. But you know what, my favorite place in the world remains here in Santa Barbara.

In addition to the birth, other notable milestones included celebrating our 5th wedding anniversary and R's 30th birthday. There has been so much reason to celebrate this year.

Hobby-wise, writing and video work have been on the decline, but my fun with photography has been on the rise. Veronica has been a huge inspiration and my new favorite subject for photos. I started a new web site in 2010 to showcase some of the pictures I've been taking of her. Free time has been short, but editing photos is so much quicker than editing video for me, so I've been fitting it in. And I just love having a record of our little girl growing up.

It has truly been an awesome year. Very few days go by when I don't think about how blessed I've been. What more could I want? Happy New Year, everybody!

Change of scenery

Here are a few non-baby related photos I've taken around town recently, just to freshen up the look around here. I'm not quite ready to begin writing much yet, but I'll probably post a brief summary of the year-in-Jeff at some point this month. Keep checking over at Three Peas for the photo story in progress.

Right number

Here's some proof that our daughter's name was on my mind well before we gave it to her. This little clip from "A Series of Wrong Numbers" was shot in 2006:


But my love of the name actually dates back much further than that. Let's just say the whole thing is destiny.

40 weeks

Nobody told me we were going to get the absolute sweetest girl in the world when this whole thing started! I am such a happy, blessed, and proud papa to our little Veronica.

There's some action happening over at Three Peas, if you haven't checked it out already.

39 and a half weeks

It is happening. I'll let you know after it happened. Until then, enjoy these final pregnancy shots.

39 weeks

It really felt like something was going to happen last weekend, and then, just today, the feeling backed off. I wasn't sure I'd have the opportunity to post a 39-week photo, but now I'm thinking there may be a 40-week one as well. (Don't count on it, however. Labor will probably start as soon as we stop expecting it.)

This photo is more low-key than the previous few. Perhaps it's fitting that it was taken at home since we are "hunkering down" now... finishing our preparations... beginning to wait. Last week at this time, I didn't feel ready for a baby and I was stressing out over it. I'm sure everything would have worked out fine, but I'm glad we had the weekend to wash some baby clothes, make some exchanges at the store, and sort of say good-bye to our non-parenting lives.

There was also a dramatic change in the weather. An unusual stretch of gray days made life in general seem out of the ordinary, like the setting of a story we'd be telling for years to come, a birth story. This afternoon Santa Barbara is back to its usual sunny self and I feel more at ease. But it could change again... I haven't looked at the forecast. I never do out here.