irresistable

this boy, in the hood heidi and i made him for Christmas.

giraffe

rare gem

what, a smiling picture?

snow star

snow star II

poor thing

heeee- YA!

my mini karate man, breaking the ice after the *first* snowfall. now that ice sheet is sort of like the wafer layer in some parfait-style dessert, the unexpected crunch in each bite (step) you take, down, then down again. i am watching the snow as i write, smoothing over the furrows and footsteps, doing so much better in real life what i try to accomplish in photo-processing.

don't try at home...

...it just doesn't work.

snow

we are having one of those benchmark winters, by which future winters will be measured. i've never seen snow here like this in my life. and of course, the city is entirely unprepared for it, one snowplow (i hear all you east-coasters sniggering), no salt, no gravel. so my brother and i got out the sled and pushed/rode it the 20 blocks down to a store near the waterfront...just for fun, really.

boys

it was a good day.

two years

happy birthday, and snow!

this little man

in his new scarflet.

habitat

...is the name of this hat, designed by Jared Flood, knitted by yours truly.


along with this scarf, to keep the boy warm on his very early morning ride to school. too beautiful for words.

gem glasses

we went and played on the Clackamas River today with our friends heidi and gemma and their children. a perfect kind of day. 

above is gemma in large glasses, a trick of the light made this a really fun picture. as ever, i exhort viewers to click on the color pics, as blogger loves to leach the life from my photos. grrr.

river treasure

heidi, anatole, and oscar's hands 'sharing' a tiny snail.

oscar and heidi

olive

with blackberry juice.

we's a company

these last two posts conclude our Maine installment. here we are with some of our dearest friends in the whole-wide world. andrew (in plaid) you saw with us in NM pictures; to his right, his big sister (and my college roomie) Jane (and wee) and her man, Joe -- recipients of knitted blanket featured in earlier photos.

to be quite honest, this is my least favorite type of picture...a whole group of people painfully geared up for a photograph that no one really wants to be in...i tried taking others, but these three were so blasted recalcitrant in front of the camera they successfully foiled all of my most charming attempts to capture them beautifully. yeah, laugh it up guys, i assure you the battle is not over. rats, now i have to go out and take a whole 'nother batch of photos. 

b&w boy in blue

Scruffy, mit a smidgeon of self-satisfaction. 

laurel

e's lovely mum, in Kennebunkport.

lisa's pizza

early morning has a way of beautifying even the most humble subjects. click on this to see colors. like scratch 'n' sniff for the modern era.

blue genie

carnival at Old Orchard Beach. this photo looks like old oatmeal now, so click on it. trust me.

faux HDR

the underbelly of the pier is a wondrously aggravating piece of work to capture photographically. the wood has weathered into tremendous shades and the light falls into a natural chiaroscuro that makes visually-hungry people like me drool...but the lens is not quite as intelligent as the eye, so all the rigor of this shot is in the post-production. pictures like this are usually taken in several different bracketed exposures and then 'tone mapped' to bring out detail in even highlighted and shaded areas, these images are called 'high dynamic range', or HDR. since i made only one exposure i faked it with my RAW converter and a whole lot of masked curves. i relay all this photo-geek gibberish purely for my own satisfaction, as this picture took me about as long as all the other ones combined, and i'm reasonably satisfied with the product (not perfectly, but i'm still pretty happy). you all probably thought i was done with maine photos, but oh no, there are more to come, i've just been busy blowing my nose, hacking, knitting, and going for long walks with the boy. autumn has arrived in portland.

a maine thing

so many vacations, so little time. i can't write enough here to describe our trip to maine, but it was hard to leave so suffice to say that it was a very successful vacation. family came from canada and spain and we played, and laughed, so hard that by all rights i should be in twice the shape that i'm in now. no matter. i took only a fraction of the pictures i should have, but fret not for there are still plenty to go around. i've tackled them willy-nilly, and now present them in no real order. all the seaside photos without people in them i took one morning at 5:30 a.m., which i tell you only so that you know how well you should appreciate them. e took as many, if not more, pictures as i, so there is a fair showing of his work too. there are many more to follow, i'm sure. and yes, our vacation was really this good.

once again, i beg you to click on the picture to view properly. i apologize for the cumbersome sizing, i've intentionally amped up the resolution on this batch for your downloading and printing pleasure (i've never tried, hope it goes well should you seek to venture down that twisty path). and people, please, leave comments! i hate for it come to this, but at this point i'm desperate to hear from you all (it need not relate to the picture or matter at hand, even) so i'm really putting my foot down. i'm liable to do something rash...

the blanket

many of you watched me knitting this in its various stages, and here it is in all of its post-blocking glory. i loved making this thing so much i'm going to make another just for us. this one went very happily to my very pregnant friend, jane (pictures to follow), to brighten up the maine winter for mama, papa, and baby. 

blanket and boy

triple genes

it's kind of like watching time go by, isn't it? they look even more alike in real life. golly, i've landed into a handsome family!

m&m

mike and manolo. one of e's shots.

manolo

our brash and brawny brother-in-law. i am convinced that spaniards just know how to live better (or at least with greater energy!). through grievous mismanagement of camera-time i have zero pictures of his gorgeous counterpart. i've made up my mind to journey to spain to remedy this, post-haste. i miss them (all three!) so much already.

roberto

our nephew bobby. caught here in a very rare serious moment, he is positively the most winning, winsome, happy, beatific, and beautiful little lad i've ever met. eyes to drown in. a adored him, woke up talking about him almost every day.

char & b

e's cousin charlotte making bobby laugh, a big hit all around with wee and old alike. this is e's shot, but post-production was so tricky to get it to the state you see here that i'm willing to take equal credit.

jeff

e's cousin and a's confirmed new idol. another one of e's, with minor tinkering by yours truly.

fire droplets

e said this looks like fire, and by george, it kind of does (ahem, that is if you click on it to see its true colors).

ferris wheel

i have some more pictures of the carnival, this one is my personal favorite.

barnacles

i finally decided that i liked this best in b&w, though the colors are great too -- acid green and olive drab, barnacles in white...too lazy to make two versions, though.

land waves

a fence under the pier.

the pier

New Mexico

today we went up to the Gila River where our good friends andrew and lexa are living. it was a wonderful unwinding as we come to the last days of our trip -- the wee loved swimming in the river with his omi and playing with everyone. it was unbelievably hot and humid (!) today so a good swimming hole was just the ticket. as for our beautiful friends, they're expecting their first mid-september, so think good thoughts of health and joy to them!

lexa

kitchen II

the outdoor kitchen at the cob house where andrew and lexa are living.

glass tops

from old telephone poles, decorating the eaves.

for gemma

my mom's kitchen in new mexico.

sleepy

our friend and her 9mo at Penny Park in Silver City, when playtime was winding down...oh, and this site is really frustrating me with what it does to the photos, so please please, if you don't already, click on the photos to view them. not only will you see them larger and in greater detail, but the colors and contrast will be better and so will my, ahem, artistic pride. wishing you all a lovely day!

surface of the moon

teefs

yes, my child does smile! a lot, actually, just so rarely when i point a lens at his mug. (rather: the smiling pictures are almost always blurry, since joy and repose do not dwell together in the toddler body...you will notice that this picture is still a bit fuzzy. i decided to live with it to show off his gorgeous chompers.) there are a few more pictures from today i'll be posting i think, but not now. it's late and my blasted personal computer device is really putting my knickers in a twist. pox on it.

omi & me

finally a shot of me mum.

bridge over Big Ditch

i tried taking pictures of Big Ditch itself (more of what i would call a gully, really) to show what he's looking at, but they were all too heinous or boring. imagine it. back in the early 20th century the Big Ditch used to be main street, which was washed out in a couple epic floods, aided by poor city planning and swamp drainage. silver city's name used to be San Vicente de la Cienaga, cienaga meaning swamp (right? are all you spaniards going to come down upon me with terrible wrath?). it's hard to imagine this little mountain town anywhere close to swampy, but now we have the Big Ditch to act as drain for the entire downtown area.

corn angel

yes, those are BabyLegs on his arms; a chill day in SC. so much water fell out of the sky this afternoon, i almost started building a boat.