Labor Day weekend at my parents’ place in Kansas. They live out in the country with three farm ponds within walking distance. Dad and I hit the best of the three for a quick fishing trip. We landed four smallish bass in the span of about 10 minutes and got no other bites.
Sometimes as a reporter you have to go places and see things you would rather skip. I covered an exhumation last week for the newspaper. Can you spot me in this photo, which ran in the paper with my story? It’s the only time I can remember that I was in a picture that made it to print. I usually try to watch the photographer and stay out of any shots. I failed to do that this time. Zac Lehr shot the photo and The Morning News owns the copyright to the image.
Witnessing an exhumation is about as bad as you’d imagine. In this case, they removed the body from the casket at the cemetery to put it in the medical examiner’s vehicle. If you want to see more photos of the exhumation go to the photographers’ blog on the paper’s Web site. You’ll have to scroll down a few entries. (There aren’t any shots of the body.)
Abby got her first hair cut today. Miss Aubrey first cut Daddy’s hair while Abby watched, then she took a go at Abby’s hair. I did a poor job of photographing the moment. There were a number of challenges that I didn’t foresee. The biggest was Gina having to hold Abby before she would let Aubrey even get close to her. I should have known that would happen, but I didn’t.
Friday night was girls night out for Gina, so Abby and I went to the Washington County fair with Kurt, Taylor and Will. For a variety of reasons, I didn’t think Abby would like the fair very much. And she didn’t like the animals. I had to carry her most of the time. But she LOVED the merry-go-round and a train ride that went around in a circle. She rode the train by herself and refused to get off when it stopped. I had to go and get her. She bawled for 15 minutes afterward.
Aunt Jodie special ordered a whole mess of Little People to integrate Abby’s Little People neighborhood. We have the Little People castle, the Little People farm and the Little People camping set, but they all came with white Little People. Because Abby is biracial, we’ve made a point to include dolls of all races in her toy collection, and Aunt Jodie has been especially helpful in that regard.
Abby and I were playing with the new additions and I got the idea they, along with the ones we already had, would make a good group shot. Strobist info: Vivitar 285HV in 43 inch silver umbrella at 1/16 camera right for main light and SB-26 at 1/64 camera left for fill.
You have to look hard for nonwhite dolls or special order them. That’s kind of sad, actually. Jodie also specially ordered a black family that matches a doll house (which came with a white family) Abby got for Christmas. The black mom, dad and baby wear the exact same clothes and have the same expressions on their faces as the white mom, dad and baby.
After the group shot, I assembled my poor-man’s macro setup to shoot some individual portraits. This is my favorite Little People from the jumbo pack Jodie got. I’m not sure what the deal is with the porn-star ‘stache. He looks like a little kid, but the ‘stache clearly indicates he’s an adult and probably up to no good. I’m not sure if the others aren’t going to run him out of the neighborhood. I have no idea why he’s carrying a present, either. Make up your own jokes. The ground is fertile in that regard. Strobist info: Same flash and umbrella camera right and the SB-26 with DIY gridspot camera left for the hair light.
Incidently, Little People these days are made of plastic. In my day, when I had the Little People houseboat, they had wooden bodies and plastic heads. Times change, I guess.
It’s Abby Sunday.
A few days ago Abby was sitting at the table after dinner and she put her chin on her hands in a very cute way. I knew it would make a good picture so I tried to recreate it this afternoon. I put a flash and umbrella on the table to camera right and another flash camera left and behind her with my DIY gridspot mounted to provide a hair light. She didn’t really want to go along with my directions and this was as close as I could get to her original pose.
Two Abby stories: First, the other day we were eating dinner and she started saying, “A-B-Y” over and over. We finally realized she was spelling her name. We told her it was A-B-B-Y and she started adding the extra B. She said she was practicing it at school.
Second, this one’s kinda gross. That’s why I like it. She’s been doing this thing while eating where she tilts her head all the way back and puts food in her mouth. It generally causes her to gag and we tell her to stop it. At lunch today she tilted her head back and popped a single macaroni and cheese noodle in. It immediately gagged her and I could tell she coughed it up the back way into her nose. Then she sneezed and the noodle shot out her nose followed by a wad of snot. It was funny.
Abby and I had the day to ourselves yesterday, so we went for a little walk down to the creek to see how high the water was after the big rain. We had to walk on the side of the busy road and every time a car passed Abby would yell, “That’s the fastest car I’ve ever seen!”
As she was throwing rocks in the water she would yell “bloop!” after the splash. One particularly big rock caused a particularly big splash that got her arm wet. She said, “It blooped all over my arm, Daddy.”
You may recall a post of a few days ago that included this pic of the locked gate at our neighborhood pool. I commented on the fact that there was no reason posted for the pool closure.
Well, the neighborhood newsletter came out on Friday and revealed the pool had to be drained because of high ammonia levels. You know what causes high ammonia levels in swimming pools? That’s right, urine. The newsletter implored swimmers to use the bathrooms at the pool and for parents to keep diapers on their babies and toddlers.
Many people make fun of me for eschewing swimming pools as big tanks of pee. They always point out that the chemicals in the water take care of such sewer-like characteristics. I feel vindicated.
Team Jackass reunited for some geocaching on Saturday, this time in the rugged terrain of the Ozarks. Team members were able to overcome the heat, humidity and elevation changes, but six miles of bad road felled the team’s elder statesman. While he was attempting to recover from a punishing case of car sickness, the other members scaled Round Top Mountain near Jasper, Ark., to claim a cache called Knife Edge.
I didn’t document the expedition very well. I think the pressure of topping last year’s film got to me. I didn’t take many pictures and the footage I captured on video is mostly people walking through the jungle-like terrain. I got a decent shot of the sisters, though, and one of Katie examining the goodies in the cache.
We’re spending the weekend at Creek’s End Riverside Retreat in the middle of BFE. West of Parthenon, Ark., down a rough-as-a-cob road. Cabin is very nice, but we can’t figure out how to hook up the Wii to the Dish Network box. Amazingly, this place has high-speed Internet. Grabbed a shot of star trails over the cabin. Inside lights and Christmas lights strung around the outside were way too bright, and I don’t think I got the focus right. Exposure was 20 minutes at f/10.
Abby wanted to go outside and tour the neighborhood after supper tonight, so I decided I would turn it into my own private neighborhood photo walk. I read on the Internets that you don’t have to go to Yosemite to take great photos. I decided to find some shots, that if not great, were at least interesting within a few hundred yards of my front door. I didn’t even shoot any Abby pics.
Hard to see in the pic, but the sign says the pool is closed “Due to draining the pool.” It would be nice to know why the pool was drained, at least. Was there a Caddy Shack-type incident involving a Baby Ruth? Who knows?
