The Last Ten Days

I just downloaded the last ten days' worth of images from my iphone.  So here are the things I will remember because I have photos, even those grainy dark ones, to refresh my memory.

Alejandro's Birthday Party

 Ten days ago - well actually 11 - we celebrated our friend Alejandro's 75th birthday with a rousing good time at the Gasthaus zur Gemutlichkeit .  Wow! I can't believe I'd never been to this restaurant before.  This was definitely a party place with lots of good food, strolling musicians who knew their music and sang and played with their hearts, lots of laughter, dancing in the isles, schnapps, snuff and visiting from table to table.  The grandsons were at our house, so we couldn't stay out late and I only got two dances on the dance floor below.  It's been a long, long time since I had to go home early because I had a babysitter waiting.  Thanks to Joy for giving us her time so that we could party.

Afternoon of Jazz

Gordon's been playing Dixieland jazz for many a year and is a member of the Twin Cities Jazz Society.  On May 13th, we attended an afternoon of jazz in the lovely home of one of its members as a fund raiser for the society.  Wonderful jazz musicians from the twin cities gathered to play their music together and Evan Christopher, a renowned jazz clarinetist, was a special guest.  Here's a nice article on Evan and his music. One of the musicians was a high school senior who got to play with all of these professionals.  It was fun to see Evan going over to him and quietly giving him a few tips after they played together.
The music was beautiful and so was the home. - lovely lines.  I wish I had brought my good camera!

We've had some hot, summery weather and visited the beach with the grandsons twice.  The beach is frequented by a college crowd and the boys find the girls quite appealing - and visa versa!

Dre receiving admiring glances from two college girls

A & J by the water.

Trying out the Exercise Course

A few mornings, while Gordon did his exercising at the Y, I took the boys to a local park that I just love.  It is a small urban park with a very country feel.  There are geese and song birds everywhere, a little pond with wood ducks and mallards, lots of native wild flowers and grasses, a walking course with little exercise stops - that the boys and I enjoy and a great playground.  I need to make it a practice to go there in the morning.  It is so lovely and, of course, it's good for me to be doing those exercises.  We all laugh at the vault.  How on earth do people get both legs to go up in the air sideways at the same time?

In the  Bobcat

The boys have taken quite an interest in backhoes and other construction equipment so we try to take them where they will see some in action when we are out and about.  That's included a few trips to University Avenue where work on the light rail that will run from St. Paul to Minneapolis is in full swing all along the route.  At this particular stop, we watched the big back hoes and caterpillars in the street doing their work and then Gordon put the boys into a small bobcat that was sitting empty on the side street where we had parked our car.

A. trying the tire pump

 Meredith has had her share of car troubles the last several months and Gordon has become practically a family member at the local garage.  Here, Andres is trying out the tire pump one afternoon while Gordon was on an expedition to retrieve Meredith's truck which had been left by friends at a park in Minneapolis with a flat tire the night before.

Julian giving the porpoise a hug

Enjoying a Sesame Street video

While we try to do lots of little outings with the boys, much of the time, we just stay near home.  Today threatened all day to be rainy and stormy.  It was hot and a bit muggy and we decided to stay close to home.  The big outing was to be to the County compost pile where I discovered a mountain of mulch last week.  I figured the boys could help me fill some buckets with mulch and then spread it in the garden.  They like to spread mulch and each has his own style.  Andres likes to carefully pour it over the plants and Julian prefers making little deposits on the flagstones in the garden.  Unfortunately, when we arrived at the compost site, the mulch was no where to be seen.  I wasn't surprised.  People come and take truckloads at a time.  It's free, so hard to beat the price.  The helper tells me there will be more as the pile of branches from people's yards has become a wall 15 feet high and 50 feet long, so there is more mulching to be done soon.  There was a backhoe there, which made the outing a success even without the mulch.



The promised rain has finally come and the temperature has dropped a wonderful 10 degrees or so. The fresh breeze is coming in my window and providing a welcome relief from the heat.

I hope that you are enjoying your spring as much as we are.

Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

In this lovely spring time, we try to get out with the boys about every day.  Today, taking the idea from Meredith's preschool field trip, we took the boys to the sculpture garden by the Walker Art Museum.  It was a hit.  Lots of walking, running, climbing opportunities for the boys.  I love all of the geometric shapes and even discovered that there is an actual garden at the sculpture garden, tucked against the far border, that I didn't even know was there.

I think the boys liked the bridge over Hennepin Avenue the best.  Julian loved climbing up the stairs and Andres loved running down the ramp.  My heart was in my throat up there with them even though there were railings and bars.  I couldn't help thinking how small they are and that it was within the realm of possibility that they could somehow find a way to squeeze through the spaces between the bars.  They were just fine, of course.

Living As If Tomorrow Mattered

In my last post, I introduced Jerry Neren's book "Once Upon A Time In Vietnam".  In the curious way that things happen, the day that I photographed Jerry for his book, I also photographed another author for his first book - also an effort of 20 years, and, in the curious way that things happen, here I am announcing the publication of his book as well.

David Robinson, Author

The Poised Century - Living Today As If Tomorrow Mattered by David A.  Robinson.

"This book is about choosing a future we can all live with.  It is about daily decision making- decision making that ensures not only our own individual well-being but also the well-being of our communities." 


Those are David Robinson's words from the first paragraph of his book, which I have just started to read.  He has a lovely style of writing and must be read slowly and thoughtfully.  So far it is an interesting combination of physics, philosophy and civic thinking.



I'm not much of a book reviewer so let me borrow a quote from Sarah Susanka, author of "The Not So Big House" series, to whet your appetite:

"The Poised Century is a powerful and thought-provoking book that will change the way you look at the world and your place within it. "

Go to the book's website (link on the book cover or on the book's title) for more information and to order the book (available in hard copy or on Kindle.)

Dave, I'm looking forward to reading your book and I hope that my friends and readers will too.  It will be, perhaps, the start of many interesting conversations (probably a good choice for a book club, now that I think about it).

Author's Portrait - Jerry Neren

I've just posted an article about the pending publication of a book by Jerry Neren, who I photographed a few months ago.  I'd like to share it with you folks that read this blog too, so here is the link:

My Business Blog

It's fun to see my name popping up on Jerry's publicity work.  I can't help it.  It just kind of makes me proud.  I'm also very excited for Jerry as he is about to see his work of 20 years published for the first time.

A Wild Portrait Session With The Twins

Scary Boy

 I thought I'd try out a new lighting set up in the parlor today.   I have a large south facing window there that can bring in beautiful light at the right times of the day when the weather cooperates.  I wanted to create a replica of that light that I can use when the time of day and/or the weather are not right.

Now, the boys are a rambunctions 18 months old and, thus, extremely difficult to photograph, so I also wanted to try a set up that might give them room to run while still providing a nice seemless background, so I hung a large backdrop all across the side wall and floor of the parlor.

Then, the theory was, put something interesting in the middle of that space and the boys will be attracted to it and run right there and play a bit.  I chose the big exercise ball because just yesterday both boys were playing with it for a long time and having a lot of fun.

Well here' how the theory worked:

At first glance we are on the right track.  Julian is heading in and pretty excited, but notice that his trajectory is not exactly straight for that blue ball.

No,  it's the flash that has his interest and that got to be a real problem, believe me.

Dre had the right idea.

But it didn't last long.

Then the boys decided to find Grandpa, who was in the kitchen.

Then we tried the Bosu.  That didn't work.

The car fared better but lasted for exactly one photo.

Caught this one on the run.

The chair was more popular.  Dre really likes to climb.

At that point, I was tired.  The backdrop came down and so did the lights and I just used the natural light from the window and chased the boys around.

Very proud of himself, standing on the  wooden chest.

Natural window light really is the best.  I wish it was more consistent so that I could use it all of the time.  All I would need to do for that would be to build a huge addition to the house and put in a huge north facing window (after moving to Phoenix or somewhere consistently bright).  Oh, well, I like it here.

Maybe my brain is too old.

It's January and I'm organizing.  I've given my blog a new look (do you like it?), my website  a new look and a new location (take a look and let me know what you think (www.cmyersphoto.com) and I've decided to separate my personal blogging from my business blogging.  This will now be my personal blog.

The folks that write about marketing your business encourage me to show my personal side in my blog so that people can get to know who I am, but I find that I get too wrapped up in worrying about "image" and that means sometimes I don't write about what I'm really interested in or concerned about.  So, for my sake, I will now have two blogs.  One (to be created) will be for the business and it will have lots of photos to help people see what they might expect from a photography session or what products I'm offering.  The other one (this one) will just be me, talking about the grandkids and what ever.  Maybe no one but me will read this blog, but I hope a few people will.  I'll let you know when I get the business blog up because it will be interesting in its own way.

In this blog, from time to time, there will be no photos at all - gasp!  Today is an example.
All of this computer work is good for my brain, I guess, but sometimes it just goes beyond me.  For example, the url (address) of this blog is:www. christymyersphotography.blogspot.com.  Well, since I now want this to be a personal blog and I'd like to have a business blog too, I thought it would be nice to change the address of this blog and use the 'christymyersphotograpy' address for the new blog.  However, I was worried that if I changed the blog's address, I would lose all that I have done in the past, so I searched the help section (with no luck), then I did a Google search and found a great article on the impact of changing your blog address, but when I got to paragraph # 3, here's what it said:

"Blog Feeds are the easiest and cleanest category to redirect. Even though Blogger won't provide a "301 Moved Permenantly" for the blog URL, they will provide this for the feed URL, using a blog post feed redirect URL. With the post feed enabled for both the live blog (under the new URL), and the stub blog (under the old URL), set the Post Feed Redirect URL for the stub blog to the exact value of the feed URL for the live blog. Your Followers and subscribers, using the old URL, will continue to see newsfeeds for your live blog, while using the old URL."



At that point, my brain just blanks out (perhaps it is the glass of wine I'm drinking at the moment) and so, I have decided, that I will not change the address of this blog and even though it is now solely a personal blog, it will still be called ChristyMyersPhotograpy.blogspot.com.


So there.

Christmas Memories

I know, Christmas is only a memory now, but sometimes it just takes me awhile to get around to the blog.  In fact, it's been months!  Are you seeing the new blog format? If not, when you are done reading, hit the close button and see the main page come up.  Isn't it fun!

Anyway, I wanted to share with you a few photos from Christmas.  This was the year that the grandsons really were able to appreciate the joy and wonder of the Christmas season.   They were awed by the lights and the Christmas tree ornaments. They loved company and they had fun at the mall.   Large golden deer in the store windows and the big stuffed giraffe at the toy store were particular favorites.

Dre with Ornament

Dre learned to say "Ho Ho Ho" in a deep Santa Claus voice whenever he saw a photo, an animal or a person in a Santa Hat.  He also loved tearing open the packages and was very helpful to all.

JuJu on Christmas morning

JuJu loved looking at the Christmas tree ornaments and was entranced with the Christmas morning fire (our first fire in the fireplace of the season).

Our little elves

They had fun, and so did we!

Now a lot of people complain about the things I'm talking about - lights, malls, ornaments, Santa - obscuring the true meaning of Christmas, but I don't have any problem with it (within reason).  Watching the boys look at a decorated tree or a towering mall display full of lights with awe, seeing a client filled with joy because she's found the perfect gift for her husband - isn't that what it is all about - The joy of giving - the awe and wonder of beauty and magic (miracles) - the hope that something wonderful, something magical can happen?

May your 2012 be filled with awe, and wonder and joy and hope.