Next Generation

On using a polaroid camera…

I know, unless you’re a part of a youth scavenger hunt or some similar activity these bad boy cameras are not likely to be seen much anymore.  But let me tell you, they are a great camera for just starting out!  Just follow E’s instructions below and you’ll soon be a pro!

Find a friend to photograph.  It doesn’t matter if they use a digital or film medium, what kind of equipment they have, if they’ve been photographing for xxxxxxx years, just find someone you enjoy and that also likes taking pictures (or is interested in learning).

Take some shots of each other.  The initial photo with a Polaroid camera is much like a digital, in that you get to see what the end result is almost instantaneously.  In fact, many professional medium and large format photographers have a Polaroid back they can put on their camera to see what the photo will end up looking like.

After taking the photo, grab it as it shoots out the front, but be careful not to touch the image, just the white edges.

Wait and watch as the image magically appears.  Actually, there’s no magic involved, just some various chemical processes we won’t elaborate on at this point.  After the image is “developed”, consider whether or not you liked the composition, lighting, exposure, etc.  With polaroid cameras there is usually a fixed aperture, meaning that one point is usually the best place for maximum focus, so adjusting for certain elements will be up to both your camera and your know how!

If you didn’t like the first take, or want to get a little bit more creative, try some different angles!

And maybe another perspective.

After your done sit down with your friend and have some fun looking at all those photographs you took!  Discuss what you liked about the other person’s work, and offer creative critique if you like.  Then, go and show them to folks, perhaps on a blog…

For a while now, E has been aware of the music genres jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, and bluegrass. Tonight out of the blue he told me he wanted to listen to “jazzrocknroll.”

I said OK, did he want to listen to jazz, or rock ‘n’ roll? He thought for a second, then said, “Jazz.” I typed in “jazz” on iTunes and told it to shuffle those songs, but when the song came on he said, “Not going listen that!”

I asked him what he DID want to listen to, and he thought again and said, “Miles Davis.” So we listened to Miles Davis for the rest of the evening and he was quite happy!

E and I had another fun day hanging around the ranch, learning checkers, climbing in suitcases, playing house, and visiting mama at work (mmmm…steamed milk).  I think the concept of checkers was overshadowed by the sheer joy of making columns out of the pieces.  Sitting in the suitcase long enough was a challenge due to little boys moving to fast to be captured in focus at f/1.4 (very shallow area that is in focus!).  Visiting mama is always a plus, and it helped that although it wasn’t really warm out, it definitely wasn’t frigid either.  Hopefully spring will be here soon!

So, here’s our first attempt at making a rock climbing video a la the request of one nana. And that’s right, he is sporting some Ninja rock shoes – thrifty direct from Goodwill in Tigard, OR!!!

What can be more fun that Duplo blocks?

E has learned how to count much better in the last few days.  It used to be that when he would count anything he would count, “1…2…3…1!”  He learned to count to 3 really quickly when we started putting him in time-out for some reason…

But he got stuck at 3, and went back around to 1.  It was pretty cute, but I’ve been working with him for the last week or so, saying, “What comes after 3?”  He says, “1!”  And I say, “4!”  So finally yesterday and today he’s got it.  Even before this he would continue counting higher if we just got past that dratted “4.”  He’s been known to count to 10, not including 4 and 5.  Now he’s got 4 and 5 down, but he counts, “1…2…3…4…5…7!”  So now we’ll have to work on 6.  But he counted all the way up to 8 (besides 6) without any prompting tonight.  I think that’s pretty good for 25 1/2 months!

(Sorry, no pictures again…)

Since we have two blog contributors sometimes you get two posts in one day (if you’re lucky!). This one won’t have any pictures–you’ll have to scroll down to the next one to get a video Joel made a few days ago to try out the video function on his new camera. But I thought I’d give you an update about what E’s been doing lately.

One of his current favorite phrases is, “Do self!” This phrase comes out often, especially when he wants to walk down the scary (to a mother) jagged concrete stairs leading down to our basement, where the laundry machines are (complete with a fistful of quarters). He wants to “Do self!” all his food, and he’s getting better at not making too big of messes!

His coordination is catching up a bit with his ambition, too. He’s been getting really good at rock climbing on the playground on a little rock wall they have there, and today he learned how to ride a trike for the first time, where he was actually pushing the pedals and moving the trike. He was pretty proud of himself. Then he rode it down a little hill and I’m pretty sure he thought that was the best thing he’s experienced in life thus far! He did that over and over.

Tonight we went to the rock climbing gym and for the first time he really got into climbing, rather than just watching us and running around. He’s getting the hang of it! Joel left his camera at home just this once, so we didn’t get it on “film,” but if you all plead loud enough maybe you can see a video of it sometime in the near future.

I made this video the other day using my new Canon 5D Mark II camera.  Enjoy!

Well, this is it folks!  Espen’s brand new site!  And, introducing my lovely wife of more than 7 years!  She’ll be sharing from time to time as well, that way between the two of us we can keep things moving here.  I’ll be making a movie page soon, so be looking for that at the top.  Below is a photo of one of our weekly family traditions: coffee at Small World!  We love it, Espen gets stoked thinking about it, and it’s a great way to support the local economy of a company we feel we can really get behind.  I’ll leave it at that for now, but stay tuned for more!