Christmas Cuteness - One of the Things I Am Thankful For

 

   

 

 

It was a great visit to Swift Current for Christmas. I hadn't been there since Thanksgiving of 2014. Fiona was a delight and melted hearts each day. Only one run-in with Santa upset her. More on him, in a minute.

As is often the case, the paper and boxes were as exciting as the gifts. For awhile, anyway. It wasn't too long before we broke into the shopping cart full of groceries and bag full of other food that grandma and grandpa had bought her to go with her new kitchen. The tea set had to stay in the box, though. She wanted it out but with all the little pieces we wanted to make sure everything made it home. Sometimes, though, the best things are free. In the first photo of Fiona you can see a gift bag that she was just enthralled with and really enjoyed carrying it around, heading to the door and saying "buh-bye!" I guess she was going shopping for that last-minute gift before bed on Christmas Eve.

Santa did stop in for a visit, and she was fine to observe him and try to figure out who this man in red was. Grandpa picked her up to come over and say hello and that was little too much. She was definitely upset about that but I sure was glad to see Santa because he brought me three, 4 foot fluorescent light fixtures. We picked them up from his garage on Boxing Day.

The one thing that I have wanted with my recent ultraviolet light portraits has been more light. I have been pushing the image quality to the limits on my camera. It is a stellar machine but definitely aimed at studio work, not a pitch black garage with a cobbled together selection of ultraviolet light sources. Now I have plenty, and expect the next shoot to have the image quality I really want. That's not to say the first shoots did not have great images. I was really happy with everyone's work. But when I look at the full resolution images I know what is possible and now can see that it will be what I have come to expect.

Regarding hard work, anyone who believes being a model or artist is easy should really give it a try. Taking the time for makeup, enduring the tedious downtime between actual creating, the physical strength it takes to play a large instrument or hold that pose for "just one more shot" is not to be dismissed. A significant number of people have put in hard work for my benefit, and I recognize and appreciate it. Sometimes it was mutually beneficial, other times it was completely selfless and all for my benefit. The very brisk weather conditions I asked young Olivia and my assistant, Rae, to endure for a sunrise session is a prime example. Those photos will be coming, soon.

The hard work put into this toybox by Fiona's grandfather can be seen in the meticulousness and the details. That same grandfather has spent so much time coming up with and building solutions for me. Those solutions could be adaptations to make things easier for me to use or they could be custom tables and supports to hold up prop for a photo that's very important to me. A photo that I needed to make last year, following the most stressful time of my life. That photo and the related post may or may not be coming, soon. I have lots to say and it needs to be said, just right.

I recognize the generosity and hard work of Santa (Dennis) who, without hesitation, offered me as many of his spare light fixtures as I needed. They were designed to be mounted to the ceiling and when he knew what I was going to use them for, quickly offered enough cord to wire them up to be plugged into a typical household socket.

Countless people have assisted me on shoots and made many of the images you see possible. That self-portrait from last summer, took me four days to put together. Had Angie been here I bet you would've been three hours, tops. It was nice to accomplish it independently but it made me appreciate any and all help I have received over my entire life.

This is not a sob story. I am reasonably strong at administrative and organizational work. Bruce has been the one to do so much of the legwork for Help-Portrait the last few years, but I'm quite happy to be on top of communications, curating lists of volunteer information and doing whatever I am strongest at. That's the way it should be in any project, regardless of disability.

I know it's not about keeping score, but whenever I have the opportunity to help out in whatever way I am able to, I don't usually take long to make the time to help out, well. Often it's through education, experience or information, which I'm always happy to communicate as clearly as I am able so that the one I am helping can accomplish their objective, efficiently.

The number of times that my parents-in-law have looked after Fiona so that we can go out together, or Angie can go out with the girls, is so greatly appreciated. We have a very good daughter and she is very easy on us (though, it looks like she's getting her eyeteeth and is one hurting little girl who should have been sleeping almost 2 hours ago) but a little bit of time and space makes us appreciate her spunky personality and impromptu dance parties, all the more.

They may not look all that similar, but she has her cousin, Will's, energy and drive to entertain. With her giggles, exploration, dancing and general performing I think they will get along very well as they grow up together. He may have a pretty big head start on her, but I'm thinking there might be a few stories to come between these two.

For me, 2015 started with great difficulty. I know that a degree of faith, determination and hard fighting made a turnaround at the halfway point. From there the year has gotten better and better, and it continues in full momentum with me having the time and opportunities to do what I love. For others, it was an entirely difficult year, with significant loss, bad news and trials like I cannot imagine. I was not exaggerating when I said it started as the most stressful time in my life, but contrasted to so much of the personal anguish that some of the people I care about of had to face this past year, it pales.

For those who I refer to reading this, if my way to return the help you gave me is to be an ear to listen or simply a distraction, contact me. I can do that for you.

The Good Things and Our Precious Seven Month Old

 

  Proudest Grandparents by Jay Scott on 500px

Excuse me if I'm brief. I just completed a document that was 4400 words, 25,000 characters to take to the director of home care, to stand in my defense to have my care maintained as it is and as it has been for 13 years. Ridiculous, I know. Understandably policies change, methods and knowledge grow, but in this case it's unreasonable, they're trying to put me inside of a box which I do not fit and to accept what they are proposing would mean great illness for me. How do I know this for sure? Past experience and 17 years of intentionally educating myself about how I function now.

I may need to go further than this. At times a person just wants to roll over when they're being mistreated and deceived but there is a principle that must be stood on. I fear that should I just give in and either accept their proposed changes to my own detriment or go with private care which is not cheap, to say the least, that I would regret it the rest of my life. I have not spent the last few years delicately working on becoming more assertive and standing up for myself as a valuable person, to be kicked in the head like this.

The last thing I'll say about it is that I am absolutely dumbfounded how one little sheet of paper containing a long-standing policy, not reasonable given my circumstances, they've now decided to use, is what these people are standing behind against all of the proof, evidence and experience I am providing them with. It's completely irrational, unreasonable and unethical. As much as I derived a degree of satisfaction from hearing the waiver in their voices and seeing the tremble in their hands as they delivered the news that they knew was unjust, I suppose sleeping on a bed of over $150,000 annual salary would ease their guilt. They even disregarded a surgeon's orders. I wonder how that would look to the eyes of a higher authority.

So, negativity aside, spend your energy fighting, formulate your defense, choose who to approach next to hear reason, and focus on the good things like incredible parents, a beautiful seven-month old daughter, a pillar of support that is my wife, and an enthusiastic little dog who's always happy to give me a hug and make me smile. All of that is great but I am not unappreciative of the friends and other supporters who have lent me their offer to do what they can, if there is anything at all. Perhaps I will need to start a social media firestorm. If it comes to that I will be asking a favor that you share, whatever form that takes. But, for now, it's time to go grab a few minutes of shut eye while I can and try to focus on the good things.

I've done what I can do for now and that makes me calmer than anything.

Fiona's Birthday

We are ecstatic to announce the arrival of our daughter, Fiona Lily, born August 20, 2014, weighing 9lbs 6oz and 20 inches long, having a voice that commands respect.

Much, much, more to come...

Still Waiting for Our Baby

 

  My Folks by Jay Scott on 500px

No baby, yet. We do have scheduled induction for this coming weekend or early next week so hopefully we won't get the call at some inconvenient time of day, but then, what would be convenient? At least this past Sunday we picked up the canvases I had on display at the mall and got a photo made of my parents-in-law. Now we just need to get Robin, and the boys, then one of Angie and I and probably one of Kiwi for the six frames I painstakingly painted to be hung in our child's room.

 

  Merv and Marilyn by Jay Scott on 500px

I thought about going to Innovation Place today to photograph the flowers that captivated me on Sunday when we made the above portrait, but my motivation was lacking and I decided to continue working on putting together some of the inserts for my new shelving unit. That's double satisfaction, right there. Organizing my disorganized mess of equipment and office clutter as well as building something with my hands. Even if it is just IKEA stuff, it still involves using a few tools and that great smell of fresh cut lumber.

I have one more photo that I'll share in a few days that scored me a lot of points on 500px and you might have already seen if you follow me on twitter. Sometimes it surprises me how popular simple snapshots with no lighting more than a reflector are popular. I'll share that with you in a few days.

Ma & Pa

 

  My Folks by Jay Scott on 500px

A couple of weekends ago mom and dad came up to visit as a likely last visit together before our baby arrives. The plan was that on Saturday dad and I would go fishing at the Forestry Farm in the morning then mom, Angie and Angie's family would join us for a picnic. After our lunch I was planning to set up a few lights and make some nice photos of our family in which to decorate our baby's room with. Unfortunately, the weather would let us have no part of it and we had a week of rain before my parents arrived, and then a dreary day on the Saturday we planned all of this for. At least we were able to take mom and dad out to the Berry Barn for a nice supper.

It wasn't terribly rainy that Saturday but I had been through the park the day before and the puddles in the picnic area must've been three inches deep. There was no way that they were going to drain by the time we wanted to have lunch there the next day. Because of this I did the best I could with the tools of my disposal and made the photo of my parents you see above. I just needed a portion of our living room to complete the job. We will need to be proactive about completing the other photos but at least those other family members live in the city.

Though I am not at liberty to share them, yet, we had our maternity/family photos done last week and, from what we have seen of the preview, are very happy with them. It helps that we knew our photographer quite well, are confident in her style and easy-going nature and that all of us involved were pretty laid back about the process. She has an immeasurably greater amount of experience working with people than I do so I was taking mental notes the whole time. She also offered me the opportunity to shadow her on some of her shoots in the future, which I intend to capitalize upon because observing a professional work like that is invaluable experience and education.

Here's one BTS  shot from the session:

Love that tree (from 2012):

I have been continuing on with Angie's biweekly photos. Below you'll see her at 34 weeks, the photo we made just this past Monday. She had to change outfits from the original series because those early maternity clothes just were no longer fitting the ever-growing tummy. We will be continuing the regular photos but probably switch to weekly as her growth will be that much faster in these last few weeks. I will post a new series of photos in the next little while.

From here on down is just camera talk. If you're interested in me and what I'm interested in you will probably want to keep reading. If you only came for the photos you won't miss much if you stop reading right here.

On a different note, it was 3 1/2 years ago that I bought my D700. The model was a few years old at that time and has been a fine camera. It was replaced two years ago by its big brother, the D800, which was actually in a higher category than the D700, was a hugely popular camera with image quality rivaling cameras 10-20 times its cost. The announcement was made last week to replace it with some significant and some less significant improvements and upgrades. I've been saving my pennies, balancing the budget, and have decided to move forward with this new body, the D810.

Normally I'm not an early adopter of technology. I like the things to come out, the problems be found and fixed, then I'm ready to buy in if it's the right technology for me. Because this is not a complete overhaul, but some additions and improvements, I feel confident that it is not going to be something that needs the bugs worked out. Some of the newer technology, that had me pull back, I learned has been implemented by other companies with smaller systems. Nikon has simply scaled it up for this body. It's not that there isn't room for problems but I feel that Nikon will look after their customers, especially after some widespread problems with a previous body. It took a bit of yelling by the customers but Nikon came through. I don't think it should have taken them as long to fix the problem as it did, but I believe they learned their lesson.

Hopefully it's here in time to begin the recording of priceless memories as soon as they begin with the arrival of our baby. I'm sure she won't mind a small mortgage of her education fund in the short term for dad to have a new toy/tool to preserve the memories of her growth. :-)

Rob, Brenda, Matthew and Danica - 2

The day before our shoot we scouted the area for a wheel instead of watching the same walls go by fifteen times at the track. The maintenance staff had emptied the pond. I thought my reflection shot planned for tomorrow was gone. We stopped to talk to them and they told us they were just cleaning it and it would be refilled by the end of the day. Besides that it had to be filled for it to be a skating rink in the winter.

Regardless, the water was not yet settled by the next day and the light just wouldn't work for a reflected shot so I tightened up the frame to make the shot below.

Such a nice family to work with, full of willingness and ideas to add to my own.

I hope to work with them again and look forward to getting back to Innovation Place  now that I have so many more great spots to use.

Rob, Brenda, Matthew and Danica - 1

With the switch being flipped that seemed to turn summer to autumn and the second flipping autumn to winter, it seemed like an opportune time to share the results of our last family session this autumn.

Word of mouth is the best and most affordable form of advertising for so many businesses. When someone vouches for you it is the highest compliment. Paul was that referrer and that is how this session came to be. I had done portraits of Paul and Rob for Federal Medical, but commercial is a different style of photography than location shoots with multiple people.

Since Innovation Place worked so well just a few weeks ago and since I had a number of great spots we didn't get to take advantage of the last time, as well as some newly discovered spots, it was a natural choice.

The raised patio from below gave us the vines on which grew some of my favourite flower snapshots, the morning glories. 

The other location I was excited to try was first seen in this post, the nook with the reflections from the gold windows. Danica's face was just radiant in those mixed lights. I grabbed one shot with her reflection in the windows, but an imperfect angle combined with being in a wheelchair on a significant slope made it less than perfect. This portrait turned out nicely.

Matthew helped his sister climb up this tree. They always say you shouldn't ask your subject to do something you wouldn't do yourself. I wouldn't have asked, they suggested climbing up there. I just shot.

Matthew had already crossed the stream but the gap was a bit too big and the rocks unsteady so we suggested they stay on the side with the walking path and little chance of having a very cold bath.

More on Monday.