Inessential Stuff

Marcus is playing baseball again this summer.  I don’t want to make endless posts, so I’ll try to be judicious.  These are pictures from his June games.  I like watching him hit, of course, and learning to field a position, but I love watching him run.  If you know Marcus, you’ll know there is something very “Marcus” about Marcus when he runs.  A single-mindedness.  A determination.  An  intensity that borders on ferocious. Well, see for yourself. For some of the pictures, there are tiny captions at the bottom left.

Marcus turned eight, and he had about as many birthday parties this year.  First, he had a celebration on his actual birthday.  Then (after a haircut) a party on a weekend at the Jump & Bounce.  And finally, another celebration with his grandparents.  Here are pictures from those various parties, including a series of him having about as much fun with a stack of books (The Series of Unfortunate Events) than one could imagine.

I like vintage baseball jerseys, and my very favorite company, Ebbets Field Flannels, recent held a contest:  the person who uploaded to their facebook page the best picture of themselves in their baseball jersey would get a free jersey.  So Alicia and I went out and did a few portraits one evening.  We shot hers at a field where there would be a good view of the sunset, and we did mine in downtown Spokane by the Henry George advertisement. Here are the results.

As for the results of the contest?  Well, let’s just say I’m enjoying my new Spokane Indians jersey.

My camera shoots HD video.  I’ve never really done much with it, but I thought I’d give it a try, and the occasion was on Marcus’ birthday.  Unbeknownst to him, I had, while he was gone for a weekend, painted his room.  Gone were the plain walls, replaced with blue walls filled with ocean creatures, with a treasure chest in the corner and jelly-fish lights hanging on the walls.  I told him we’d open presents in his room.  This is him walking into his room and seeing the transformation.  Though the video-work is less than great, the video is a pretty great illustration of who Marcus is.

Photographer Edward Weston is reported to have said that the three most perfect shapes were the hull of a boat, the shape of a violin, and the shape of a woman.  For me, one of my “most perfect shapes” is a Coca Cola bottle.  TImeless, classic, elegant.  Here is a small collection of photographs I took of Coke bottles.

This is my good friend Del Engen. After a long career at Microsoft, he chose to pursue his passion, both in film and music, by training and then working in film scoring. He recently asked me, far too tentatively, if you ask me, if I would mind doing a photoshoot with him for his professional website. Del has been a friend for 20 years, so I was glad to shoot with him.

And I had some specific things in mind. First, Del’s condo has one wicked view of downtown Seattle and the Space Needle. So I thought it might be fun to shoot there. The outside, even on a cloudy Seattle day, is always much brighter than inside. So there was a bit of lighting challenge which I thought would be fun, and would create an appropriately cinematic look. It involved placing a strong light high at about the 2:00 0′clock position (if I am the center of the clock and Del is 12:00) and then a smaller fill light at the 11:00 position, which I triggered with my brand new RadioPoppers (which I use now instead of PocketWizards). I really liked the shadowing it gave, and putting the attention on Del, while showing a bit of the warm interior and still exposing correctly for the Seattle clouds and Space Needle outside.

We also shot at a coffee shop across the street where there is a piano. Again, I mostly went with dramatic cinematic lighting, keeping it to one light both for the convenience of shooting and for dramatic light and shadow. Finally, as we were crossing the street, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for a shot Del in the sidewalk, with the road dropping down into Seattle below. It was a really fun shoot. I have up a small gallery here of some of the images.

Introduced a new cat to the family, which Marcus has named Bamboo. He’s a total lover-boy and purr-bug. Just don’t mess with his carrot-toy that hangs from the ceiling. He’s pretty protective. He also has enormous paws, so I think he’s going to be big. I love this cat. Big. Bam. Boo.