On New Year’s day Lesley and I made an unplanned drive from Charlotte to Miami, spending 4 days with her entire family. It was awesome, such nice people. Everyone went out of their way to make me feel welcomed and comfortable during a tough time. We had a nice sunday dinner at her aunt’s home and almost all of the family was there (some were at the Dolphins game, watching the end of the season). I had brought along my cameras, of course, and the light was right and the setting right, so we decided to take some photos of all the kids who were there. Fun times! We used Stuart’s old ford truck, 1965 custom cab, that had the perfect patina for a quickie shoot like this. Some of the kids warmed up right away, others took some time but in the end everyone was not wanting it to stop. The only reason we did is that we ran out of sunlight! I did get to use the new 5d, so these files are pretty awesome. Thanks to everyone who helped and to all the kids who wouldn’t stop smiling!

Stuart and his truck.

Cousins Hannah and Rachel

cousins Hannah and Rachel

Hannah

Rachel

Rachel

The oh so serious Lindsey!

She can laugh too!

Ryan

Sisters Morgan and Lexi in a natural state

Morgan

Lexi

Evan and his curls

Evan out cruising

Evan loves his mommy

So I have a ton of stuff to blog about dating all the way back to the summer. Drives me crazy. I picked up a new camera right before Christmas, the new 5D Mark II. it is crazy good. It is arguably the best digi camera available right now, but on top of that it shoots full, uncompressed 1080i HD video, using all the Canon lenses, like the tilt and shifts, the macros and the super fast ones. I know! Crazy! Of course right now all that means to me is I need to upgrade to CS4, get Final Cut Pro, buy 8 gig CF cards, etc, etc, etc. Oh, and of course a new computer to handle the video and the 60 meg files the camera produces. I am excited to dive into the video. Using this camera has already re-energized my shooting. I had been using other digi cameras that did not have the same full frame sensor the 5D has. Once I started shooting full frame again, without the 1.6 lens factor, I started ’seeing’ things the way I remember. I feel like I have my vision back. the lenses behave and look and feel different on this camera. The DOF is different. The angle of view is different. It makes me happy.

I did not get to fish over the holidays, I was sick for most of it and Lesley and I took an unexpected trip to Miami. We stayed with her parents and they have a pool. Bella loved swimming but did not like jumping in from the side. I would toss her ball into the pool and she would wait for it or paw the water trying to make it come to her. In this series she reached just a little too far! I took these with the new camera but had a wide angle lens on, these are cropped and are about 1/6 of the frame and the quality is still very good!

Bella and Lulu are best friends. They really play all day when they are together.

Can she reach it?

Nope! 

And there she goes!

Fully committed now.

But if she turns around real quick, she can still get the ball!