Category Archives: From the Camera

Childhood is Awesome

20 March, 2011

Being a kid rules. Being a parent of kids like this rules.

I mean, seriously, when did we all decide that it’s not cool to wear a construction paper headband with kangaroo ears stapled to the sides?

Alisa and I are (obviously) awaiting the arrival of another little boy. Could be any day now. We’ve both been thinking a lot about what it means to be a parent, and what it means to get these kids raised in such a way that they can (a) function, (b) succeed, and (c) rock this world. It takes time and it takes patience and it takes a willingness to make all kinds of mistakes, but it is really the coolest thing I’ve ever done, which is why we want to do it again.

Sure, there will be lots of crying and sleeplessness, and poop, but there are also moments you get when your shy daughter gets on stage to sing and dance and when your son says, “Wait, let’s stop and clean my room, Zoë. If we don’t, I won’t be able to have any screens tomorrow.”

I have more to say on my style of fathering (cheeseburger + Marvel Comics iPad app), but suffice it to say, I’ve been feeling kind of glowy and happy about being a dad lately.

Also posted in Family Life | 0 Comments

Why Two Hearts?

15 February, 2011

Why does this little boy have two plush hearts sticking out of his shirt? If you have to ask, then no one in my family will talk to you.

Hint: BBC America

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My Doctor is Five

09 January, 2011

I will be the first to admit that this kid is a little obsessed right now with Doctor Who, but given all the possible things in this world a little boy could become obsessed about, I am okay with a hero who doesn’t like guns or things military, who gives every creature in the universe a choice and a chance, who thinks that human beings are “brilliant.” And, he could totally be the Doctor if they ever needed a five-year-old blonde version.

The thing is, this stuff (hair, screwdriver, etc.) is pretty much all his idea. Even the pose here was 100% his. He got all set up like this and marched off to church, gaining all kinds of attention, mostly from old ladies who wanted to gobble him up and lick the sweetness off their fingers.

More photos from the shoot at Facebook.

Also posted in Family Life, Metablog, Rave | 3 Comments

Three Dimensions

18 December, 2010

This could easily be one of my favorite photos of Ike. Can you like one of your own photos that way? Don’t care. It breaks lots of rules. Don’t care. It makes our house look so space opera-y. And that’s a bad thing?

Now that the holidays are here, I’m going to attempt a few posts. Are blogs still something? Don’t know. I am growing tired of Facebook, a little. Twitter is so scattered. Perhaps the focus of the blog will feel, I don’t know…kind of retro.

Posted in From the Camera | 1 Comment

Finally Got the Zoë Portrait

19 September, 2010

It took a while, but we finally have a full set of portraits, now to send off for printing, then matte, frame, and hang in the house. I was shooting for naturalistic, informal portraits that focus more on what the family feels like. It think it all worked out.

Also posted in Family Life | 0 Comments

Add One of Ike, Too

23 July, 2010

What started with a lens and camera calibration check is turning out to be a full fledged family portrait project. I think these photographs really capture personality as well as the look of each person at this point in our lives.

Here’s the five-year-old, Ike. Next will be to catch the elusive critter, Zoë Ingrid.

Also posted in Family Life | 1 Comment

And My Lovely Wife

16 July, 2010

Put the camera on my lovely wife and got this. Ten years this coming January.

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A New Look

16 July, 2010

I’ve been toying with making some changes to the beard, which has gone basically unaltered for more than a decade, actually for almost twenty years. So, after buying some Doobie Brothers vinyl yesterday, I decided to grab my clippers and carve a little 70s out of my face.

I went about my business today, and a really curious thing happened. Tons of people in town and up at the reservoir and all over started talking to me about fishing and cars and guy stuff. It’s like this new look is professor camo. I might keep it.

Posted in From the Camera | 2 Comments

Zion National Park, Zhang Yimou-Style

11 May, 2010

For those of you who haven’t been following my recent exploits, early summer is when I start doing my Partners in the Parks projects. Partners is a program I run with my colleague Matt Nickerson, the Southern Utah University honors director. The gist of it is this: we take college honors students to national parks for a week at a time. They hike, learn from professors and rangers about park management and resources, and really get a deep experience instead of a four hour drive through, which is common for most Americans.

We’re funded through a National Parks Service grant, and we get some pretty amazing access. This summer I’ll be leading or advising projects in Zion National Park, Grand Canyon-Parashant (in the remote NW section of the Grand Canyon, and Denali National Park in Alaska. We’ll also be exploring new possibilities for projects in Olympic National Park in Washington, Great Basin, King’s Canyon, and Sequoia. We also have projects that I am not directly overseeing in Cape Hatteras and Manhattan (many are unaware of the many, many urban NPS sites).

For the last two days I’ve been hiking through an upper section of Zion National Park, called Kolob Canyons. This morning we awoke to snow. We knew it was coming, but we sort of hoped we’d be wrong about that. It made for a miserable slog: lots of mud and being cold, but it was spellbindingly beautiful.

I kept expecting to see Chinese warriors flying overhead with spears and flowing silk robes, engaging in silent battle between the sandstone ramparts and the mist.

Today was hard going, but it was very beautiful. It was a good day, all in all, because I had good gear, I was in pretty good shape, and I was at work.

Also posted in Campus Life, Rave | 0 Comments

The Children’s Parade of Nightmares

05 December, 2009

Our town has a very strange tradition of whacked parades. This year’s Children’s Christmas Parade was deliriously psychotic. But don’t take my word for it. In particular, watch out for the lobster (words to live by, huh?).

Sleep well.

Also posted in Strangeness | 1 Comment