Dec/090
Aidan and the Train
Aidan loves wooden train sets, and we got him the discount version for Christmas, the set doesn’t have a permanent home yet. He is also starting to speak in a mixture of Chinese, English, Grunts and Screams. He walks, runs, stands on one leg, climbs on stuff, and is very good at copying our actions. More of an update to come after his 18 month check-up in January.
Dec/093
Vancouver and Seattle 2009
Time for vacation, so where else would you go but Seattle known for its dreary falls, and Vancouver known for having a rain forest in the middle of the city. We had a great time, and discovered that Aidan likes the rain.
If the inline gallery does not work for you, you can also see the pictures here.
Nov/090
Halloween 2009
It rained here for most of the evening so Aidan was stuck inside with use, but he still has a blast on Saturday, he loved seeing all the other kids in the neighborhood out in their costumes. Once he saw what I was doing he also helped hand out candy, even when the kids didn’t want more candy Aidan grunted at them until they took some more. We were worried that he would refuse to wear the lion mane cap, but he loved it and wore his costume for three and a half hours. He managed to get his first taste of chocolate when he managed to chew through the wrapper of a Nestle Crunch bar that a neighbor gave him.
Oct/090
First Grass Stains
We took Aidan out to run around in the fields near the house, he likes to run down hill until he falls over.
Oct/090
Aidan in the salad bowl
The camera came out for the first time in a month and we caught enough shenanigans for four or five videos. Here is the first, not only the first time that Aidan dumped his toys out of this large salad bowl, but also the first time he climbed in. Stick around for the end to see Aidan’s first solo use of a step stool.
Oct/091
Head Bump
Even the happiest kid have a bad day, or for Aidan a bad thirty seconds. Don’t worry he was happy and playing less than a minute after these pictures.
Sep/090
My first sunrise pictures
I convinced Gary, Jen and James to get up stupidly early on a Sunday and take pictures of the sunrise on the mall. My timing was a bit off, and I stopped to help Katherine get Aidan situated when he woke up while I was getting ready so we showed up in the middle of a beautiful sunrise. There were just enough clouds in the eastern sky to highlight the colors.
I still need to work on holding the camera perpendicular to the ground and holding the camera still on anything but the quickest shutter speeds. I swear that wearing glasses makes both of these things harder than they should be.
The pictures are here; these were shot with a Nikon D40 with 35mm F/1.8 lens direct to JPEG with auto-white balance. I used a mix of aperture priorty (most shots) and manual mode (those shots I wanted to under expose more than my more normal -.3).
Sep/091
Weston Master II Universal Exposure Meter Manual
I pulled out the box of my old photo equipment last night, and found a light meter that I picked up at the Salvation Army years and years ago. I never quite figured out to use it, but the Internet came to the rescue with someone who scanned the manual. It was annoying to look at the manual image by image so I combined it into a PDF. Here it is the Instruction Book for the Model S141/S735 Weston Master II Exposure Meter for anyone else who has one of these dinosaurs.
Sep/090
Aidan’s first football
In honor of the Redskins’ seasoner open against the NY Giants, we bought him his first football to go along with wearing his first official jersey (Chris Cooley of course). The Redskins lost, but Cooley did catch a touchdown pass in the fourth quarter.
Sep/090
First HDR Photo
I have been playing with HDR photography lately, and finally have one worth sharing. My photo expeditions have been limited to my neighborhood so it is a bit difficult to find a scene that will stay still while I fiddle with the camera to take five exposures. Although you don’t need much more than a cheap SLR, a tripod, and Photoshop or or Photomatix to get started, don’t blame me if you start lusting after a professional grade SLR with automated exposure bracketing and DoF preview.