Things I Learned (Or Remembered) In Vancouver

1. My husband is my friend.  Obviously I know this to be theoretically true in my daily life.  But daily life is full of it's-your-turn-to-do-the-dishes and can-we-switch-school-dropoff-and-pickup and I-have-no-idea-where-your-car-registration-form-is.  Will and I had not been away from home and Ezra together in nearly two years and the minute we hit the airport an easy camaraderie fell over us that fit like a glove.  We celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary on this trip.  I think I'll keep him.

2. New friends are so fun.  I met Cherish at Camp Shutter Sisters last fall.  Tamar and I have been following each other online for a year.  They arranged babysitters so we could have a triple date that involved copious amounts of BC wine and the best mussels I've ever eaten and also photowalks so that I could see the east and west sides of their fair city.  Seeing a new place through the eyes of insiders, especially insiders who would also wander aimlessly with their cameras, is one of my favorite things to do.  (Followed, immediately, by seeing a new place through the eyes of a stranger.)

3. The Pacific Northwest is to die for.  Or is it the southwest if you're Canadian?  Either way, the combination of soaring mountains, ocean, towering forests, rain, boats, bikes... Really, I could live there.  I could get adorable rain gear and eat fish every day and never need to buy another bottle of moisturizer.  Also, coffee, Asian food of all varieties, Stanley Park, yes yes yes.

4. Colorado's pretty great too.  I remembered this when I got home and Ezra didn't give me the cold shoulder and the sun dried me out in the mountains, and old friends gathered 'round.  

5. Life is sweet.

In The Studio

I got to interview Chris in February for a short film our mutual friend Dustin was making, and it really got me thinking about what it means to be gutsy in your own work, and about how much I need and want to harness the power of that in my own creative journey.  (I'm working on it.)

In the months since then Chris and Dustin continued to work on the piece and it's ready to view!  Looking at it now I have to say that I just love hearing Chris talk about the interplay of his passions and how they feed and inform each other, making each element stronger.  I was on the edge of my seat during the original interview hearing him talk about his process and it's fascinating to watch again.  

And finally, this piece is just stunningly beautiful - both Chris' paintings and Dustin's shooting.  Blow it up to full screen, and enjoy.

Peachy

Three Minutes In The Dark

Babies can't put the bread in the toaster, because they will get burned.  Only big boys can do that.

Babies can't sit on the big potty, because they will fall in. I can do that because I'm a big boy.

Suddenly I notice that all of Ezra's shirts are too small.  Mind you, not because I observe it myself, but because he squeals when it is time to get dressed, demanding a floppy shirt.  One that wiggles.  I don't want that shirt.  That shirt is too tight.

I don't mind Ezra's hell-bent demonstrations of growing up.  I actually relish that he's not a baby any more.  But at night, after our torturously slow tooth brushing routine and our books and our what-was-your-favorite-thing-about-today, lately he asks, Will you lay with me in three minutes? 

And I do, because it's the quietest three minutes of the day.

Will gave me a necklace when Ezra was born, a thin gold chain with three small beads, one for each of us.  It has dangled there nearly every day since.  As soon as the infant Ezra gained any control of his extremities he found that necklace.  When he was nursing we sat in the blue rocking chair in his room a million times a day, and every time he latched his tiny little hand fluttered to my throat and clutched the necklace like a prayer mala.

(The other day he pointed to my breast and asked, Is that your belly? 

No, I said.  That's my breast.

What is it for?

When you were a baby it made milk and that's how you ate.

Oh.  He thought, pointed at one and then the other.  This one made milk and that one made water?)

So here we are in the big boy phase.  The other night lying next to him in three minutes, watching him sink into slowness, I felt the absentminded starfish of his big boy hand find its way to my necklace.  It was a happy jolt, jogging me into remembering those long, slow infant days. 

The gift, as we rush into Big, is this: our former selves and all our time together, all of it, is encoded into our muscle memories in a place beyond knowing.

Welcome the New Baby

SOOC test shots from my first spin with the D800

*Alert! Alert! Full camera geekiness ahead! You have been warned!*

I have been lusting for Nikon's new D800 since they announced it several months ago.  Up until now Nikon has not had a full frame camera or one with broadcast-quality video. Canon, with their 5D Mark II, has been the standard bearer for the category and I was seriously considering switching, even with the significant investment it would take to buy not only the body, but to replace my collection of Nikon lenses.

I held fast though, and was surprised and delighted when my local camera store called yesterday morning to say the camera had arrived, faster than I expected.  I was completely impatient for the work day to end so I could go claim my new baby.

Ezra, naturally, was much more interested in digging in the 15 cubic yards of mulch we had delivered Tuesday than letting me focus on the camera long enough to figure out how switch it out of automatic mode.  So the camera sat patiently on the dining room table while I impatiently dug mulch with my short (but demanding) overlord.

As soon as Will got home from work I begged him to take over Ezra and dinner duty so I could show the camera the block where we live.  It was an overcast evening and getting late, but the photos in the above collection are all straight out of the camera, edited only to crop them into the collage, but not at all to manipulate their exposure or color.

Off the bat I will say that I am completely impressed with the camera's low-light capabilities, the richness of the color it produces and the detail it (and the 50mm f1.4 lens I shot with) captures.  Rumor has it the video is pretty damn nice too, and I hope to begin to experiment with that this weekend.  Being a person who hates to read manuals of any sort, I am a bit intimidated by the complexity of the controls on this instrument but I'm determined to learn to harness its capabilities and so excited to discover where my vision will lead as I play.

Here we go!