It's all about having more, so let's have some more! (days# 129-139 of Lars' 365 (+1) Day Project)

Oh yeah, hard to believe I'm still surprised by the daily photo!

Yep, Easter came and so did the yummy treats.

Still had a couple left over the following day, but not quite enough.

Who says sleep is boring? Nope.

Playoff basketball! Oh yeah.

Friday the 13th came and we weren't so lucky.

Of course the following day seemed much luckier with the bananas in abundance.

On the couch with the monkeys once again.

Yep, up to this point there's still not a sour taste in my mouth.

Of course if you want to see the final versions, with the extra witty text, go to my Lars 365 Day Project on flickr.

More to come.

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(The Teacher on May 8, 2012 12:45 PM) Love these Hubs.

Hard to go wrong with your cake pop, monkey backpack and a parade.

Of course these two loonies showed up.

And proceeded to yell at the parade participants and crown during THE ENTIRE parade.

Yeah, it sort of tainted the event, but we rolled with it.

And the parade went on.

I love this parade for all of the great costumes.

And Magnus was certainly impressed.

With the very tall ladies.

And slightly with Spider-Man-Head and Cell-Phone-Lady.

And my favorite, Birdman, showed up again.

I guess the next parade to look forward too is the Pet Parade. This little guy showed up too early.

Of course if you want to see larger versions (and some more that didn't show up here), go to my Procession of the Species Parade set on flickr.

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So, before the weather changes, let's have some more! (days# 113-128 of Lars' 365 (+1) Day Project)

Oh yeah, let's keep this thing going...

Plenty of basketball to watch on tv.

Yeah, the monkey and me like our snacks.

And of course it didn't take long to get another yummy food photo.

Lars didn't had to tough it through being sick too.

Recovery didn't take too long, and he was back in the mood for fun and games soon.

Hard not to get tired at times.

Baseball season as well.

Finally, a nice snack on the couch with the monkeys.

Of course if you want to see the final versions, with the extra witty text, go to my Lars 365 Day Project on flickr.

More to come.

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Saturday we spent the day running errands and when dinner time rolled around, we decided to head to the Old Mill District. It was going to be a late dinner (after our Costco run), so all of the hip Saturday-night-out-people were out and strutting their stuff.

When you have a toddler and a baby, you don't fall into that crowd (often) and since they were with us, we avoided the hip restaurants and went to something family friendly : Jimmy Johns.

Another humorous aspect to add to this story, was I was armed with my camera AND basic lighting gear (for my daily Lars photo project). Nope, the camera wasn't left at home, it wasn't left in the car, it was on my side.

So, here's some background information on Matthew Fox and Bend. Yes, the star of LOST has a house here and has been spotted numerous times around town. Both The Teacher and myself were big fans of the show, so we were waiting for our sighting to happen.

After parking behind REI, we walked towards Jimmy Johns, walking past level2. The Teacher was walking ahead of me with Lars, and I followed behind with Magnus. She turned and said "Chris!" as a couple popped into view. There was some dude and woman who was wearing this black and white tiger stripped coat and pants. It was a pretty crazy outfit. Not something you spot on the street in Bend everyday. Then they went into level2.

The Teacher once again turned to me and asked me what I thought.

"Yeah, that was a pretty crazy outfit," I replied.

The Teacher responded, "No, that was Matthew Fox".

I guess in my world fashion trumps fame.

No photo, no sighting, but a very non-typical celebrity spotting encounter.

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So, without further ado, let's ave some more! (days# 92-112 of Lars' 365 (+1) Day Project)

Time to keep the poses fresh.

I'll just admit it here, food was a big part of this month's photos.

And when you eat a lot, you do get sleepy after the meals.

And cranky when meals aren't served on time.

We did toast reaching triple digits (day 100).

And the monkey suit came out again.

Clocks sprung forward.

Yummy. yeah, more food.

Yep, all this eating made us thirsty as well.

Seriously, it's all food, all the time.

Just one more snack for now.

Finally a nice book before bed, which is a good point to stop the recap (for now).

Of course if you want to see the final versions, with the extra witty text, go to my Lars 365 Day Project on flickr.

More to come.

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So, I wasn't aiming for messy photos, I was shooting for über messy photos.

Yep, it didn't take long for him to get all nice and messy.

As you can see, I wanted lots of texture and detail in the photos.

The hard light really helps bring that out. Magnus and hard light go together like bread and butter, eggs and bacon, or meat and more meat.

Better than a crazy makeup job.

The good thing is Magnus is always ready for more. So, more crazy shots of the crazy not-so little guy will be coming.

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So, without further ado, let's ave some more! (days# 79-91 of Lars' 365 (+1) Day Project)

Did some in the black and white theme here. It's sort of like good versus evil, not that either the monkeys nor Lars are evil. Usually just good.

The last two were examples of having fun by putting a flash into a lamp (didn't you think the lamps were just lamps?)

Also, it was time for another wearing of the monkey suit.

Watching more basketball was also the norm.

The little man did venture out of the house for a few of the shots.

Yeah, time for some classic poses as well.

Those helped balance out the artsy banana shots.

And that was the end of February.

Of course if you want to see the final versions, with the extra witty text, go to my Lars 365 Day Project on flickr.

More to come.

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Magnus is already a pretty tall dude. The Teacher and myself predicted this long before he was even born. With her height at 5'-11" and mine at 6'-10", we knew the odds of him being tall would be pretty good.

This month we reached the Dr. recommended age for measuring his height and doubling it. It worked for me, and Magnus has the same Pediatrician I had. So, as you might guess, we've been getting excited when this day arrived.

So, after getting out the brown wrapping paper, rolling it out on the floor and making marks at the top of his head and the bottom of his feet we had the number.

At two-years and two-months old, Magnus is 3'-5" tall. Guess what, that means 6'-10" is his predicted height. Sounds familiar to me.

In fact, here's the semi-accurate visual proof.

This is proof that cloning works. Heh heh.

So, the next question is how big is Lars going to get?

I guess we have to wait a couple of years to find out.

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(The Teacher on Feb 29, 2012 2:26 PM) Funny!

So, without further ado, let's ave some more! (days# 63-78 of Lars' 365 Day Project)

Yep, it's hard not to go back to the leather loveseat again and again.

Sometimes it wasn't planned, but the moment seemed right, so the on-location shots are always a treat, and sometimes a hassle.

Yep, there's always time for product placement. Maybe I'll get a sponsor soon.

Hard not to have fun with this.

Probably the funnier shot, was after Lars was done with this shot, the cat hopped up on the chair for his.

Yep, Valentines Day.

Yep, rest up while you can, there's always going to be more.

Of course if you want to see the final versions, with the extra witty text, go to my Lars 365 Day Project on flickr.

More to come.

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Given the fact that it was a balmy 28 out, it didn't take as much coaxing to get people to take a dip in the still chilly Deschutes.

This was my first Polar Plunge (watching), so I honestly wasn't quite sure what to expect. Of course, if there's an opportunity for photos, I'm game. The fact that this event was for charity, takes away the statement What are these people thinking?.

The groups ran at full-speed towards the water bank and crashed into the water with reckless abandon. Seriously, with cold water, that's the only way to do it.

The police presence was in effect. I'm not sure if it was partly to enforce those who backed out at the last second.

Batman was in attendance. Seriously, is there an event in Bend anymore when Batman doesn't show up?

Everyone was enthusiastic as ever.

Of course the looks on people's faces were not so happy on the return trip from the water.

But that didn't stop the next group from running into the water.

While some people simply walked into the water, others took a more artistic approach.

Seriously!

This guy knew he had style.

Not quite as graceful.

Yep.

Looks like I might have to put this on the calendar of annual Bend events to attend.

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So, without further ado, let's keep it going! (days# 47-62 of Lars' 365 Day Project)

Yeah, I went to the store to buy some pacifiers for Lars. The choices were pretty bad and I ended up getting a package with one clear one and one PINK ONE. Yep. Of course if anyone asks about our cute baby girl, the name Lars should bring them back down to Earth.

Time to get silly, with all of the good health.

We did do another road trip out east. I took advantage of the motel room here.

Of course I need to teach the not-so-little man basketball, so look for this theme to continue.

So, time for a breather once again.

Of course if you want to see the final versions, with the extra witty text, go to my Lars 365 Day Project on flickr.

More to come as usual.

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(Nadine Hunter on Feb 18, 2012 11:49 AM) Love every photo. It's time to copyright and think about a book. I'm so into monkeys toys.

Geez.

So, I decided to do the next best thing. Punk The Lust list.

And guess what, my wish came true .

Our local newspaper also runs a regular feature called Well Shot. I thought I could nail this one, and came up with this photo.

I thought it would be a no-brainer for the staff at The Bulletin, but no luck so far. C'mon, I want the double punk'd achievement.

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So, without further ado, let's keep it going! (days# 32-46 of Lars' 365 Day Project)

Of course I wanted to start it off with another monkey suit shot.

Okay, Lars still doesn't have teeth, but there's no reason you can't pose with the KFC bucket.

Yep, there's still lots of sleeping for the little man, and no reason to not capture some of it.

Okay, I had to keep it somewhat real. There were some sick moments, so why not incorporate it?

So, that was the start of 2012.

Of course if you want to see the final versions, with the extra witty text, go to my Lars 365 Day Project on flickr.

More to come as usual.

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I had this idea for a while, and when the old-school 3D glasses arrived in the mail, I knew it was finally time to pull it off.

I did some initial research on Google images to find some other TV viewing photos. Generally, there were two typical vantage points: 1) behind the people, looking at the TV, or 2) behind the TV, looking at the people. Option 2 was the only one that really made sense, since I watched to show off the 3D glasses.

I knew that I was going to have to shoot with a fairly wide-angle lens, but after a few test shots I found that I had to shoot as wide as I could possibly go (at 10mm). I was hoping that I could get away with using another lens that went to 18mm (and that was a lot lighter), but that option wasn't going to cut it.

Since the TV was pretty close to the wall, this soon became the biggest challenge in making this shot happen.

Yep, I only had about seven inches of space. I did have some wiggle room, and was able to move the TV a couple of inches further from the wall (but that was it). I basically had the camera up against the wall, on top of a tripod (behind the TV). It was darn tight and made changing the camera settings and viewing test photos extra work as well.

I already knew that shooting at 10mm, the existing location of the couch wasn't going to be close enough for showing both the TV and us watching it. Magnus was willing to sit in the chair and watch what I was doing (it also served as a good test for where I planned to push the couch for the final shot). Basically, the chair was darn close to the TV. A good comparison would be sitting in the front row at the movie theater.

For the lighting in the photo, I knew that I needed light on the back of the TV and light on us sitting on the couch. Testing out a flash directly on the camera, gave me the typical flash on the camera with a wide-angle lens shot.

Not what I wanted, so I knew I would have to use two flashes to light each element (the guys and the TV) separately. To light the guys, I wanted to control where the light went (no spill on surrounding stuff), so I went with my handy-dandy DIY beauty dish. I plopped it on a light stand (in front of the TV - as close as I could get and as low as I could get) and took a test shot.

Hmmmm... Not exactly a good thing either. Even in this smaller version of the photo, you can see the beauty dish slightly obscures Magnus sitting in the chair.

So, I got out my Manfrotto Magic-Arm and rigged up something to drop the height of the beauty dish down about a foot.

I didn't want the light coming up from the floor, instead I wanted it as if it was coming out of the TV, so that's why I didn't just set the beauty dish on the floor. So, time for another test photo.

At this point I was happy with the light on Magnus in the chair, but it was easy to see that the back of the TV needed some light. I tried a couple of test shots with a flash being pointed directly at the edge of the TV, but that only spilled light into scene. So, I put the flash at the base of the TV (in back) and set it to full power to blast the wall behind the TV. Basically, the TV shielded the rest of the scene and it put just enough light on the edge of the TV.

Now that the lights were set, I moved over the couch and verified it was all working.

I knew there would be a slight issue with getting both Magnus and Lars to wear the 3D glasses (at the same time). Amazingly, it didn't take many shots (with glasses falling off, or heads turned the wrong way, etc) before I got it.

That shot is straight out of the camera. Considering I was posing with a two-year old and a three-month old, I couldn't have been happier. No swapping out heads, no body double-replacements, no stand-in models. It was all good.

For the final photo, I tweaked the white-balance (to give it a cooler light (as if the TV was actually lighting us), and cropped the photo tighter.

A larger version is on flickr: here. Check it out.

Now, I just need to plan the next epic photo with the boys.

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So, without further ado, let's keep it going! (days# 12-31 of Lars' 365 Day Project)

Christmas time!

Neither the monkey nor Lars did eat any tacos or hot sauce, but they sure eyed it.

Putting our heads together.

And that was the end of 2011 (one month down).

Of course if you want to see the final versions, with the extra witty text, go to my Lars 365 Day Project on flickr.

More to come as usual.

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