Kate Rose is pleased with herself these days, as she ought to be. She’s enjoying walking—holding onto an adult hand—and trying on hats. It’s fun to watch her joy in life.

Katie Rose likes her bubbles, and she likes her bubble bath—that’s why we call her Bubble Girl!

Photographing a toddler playing with soap bubbles is like trying to catch two moving targets at once: the child and the bubbles. My best advice is to crank the ISO so you can use a reasonably fast shutter speed, watch your focus point, and be quick on the trigger. If you pause or even hesitate briefly it’s gone.

It’s great to see Katie so joyful, and playing as the normal kid she is, considering that not so long ago when Katie Rose was born she weighed as much as six sticks of butter.

Katie Rose enjoyed her second Christmas with full comprehension of the important role that presents play in the festivities. Those of you that have followed her story since her birth will understand what a miracle this represents. There’s some delay in gross motor skills, but Katie has perfected the “commando” crawl. On a wooden floor this looks a great deal like swimming. Katie’s vocabulary increases day-to-day, with “ight” [light] and “oor” [door] frequent favorites.

We don’t normally dress Katie Rose in girly outfits like the one shown (a Christmas gift from her Grandma Barbara). For one thing, it isn’t easy to crawl in a dress. Our policy is to treat Katie just like we did her three brothers. Perhaps it is something innate—she seems to enjoy being dressed up. And also the freedom to crawl when we took the dress off and put her back in “normal” clothes.

We recently had a great time celebrating Nicky’s eighth birthday with family and a few of his friends. Nicky is such a great guy.

It is not an original observation, but the years sure do pass swiftly. It seems only yesterday that he was quite little—but still smiling, because that is Nicky.

Katie Rose enjoyed the birthday party. She’s at the stage where the wrapping paper and box are just as exciting as the present inside.

Great reasons to be thankful!

It’s virtually impossible to keep awake with a sleeping baby on one’s chest—as you can see in this shot Phyllis took of me snoozing with Katie Rose.

I am glad to have this photo, because who photographs the photographer? I don’t often appear in family photos.

What do Katie Rose and Harry Potter have in common? They both survived.

When the advance copy of The Photoshop Darkroom was delivered just now to our front door, Katie Rose couldn’t wait to get started with creative digital post-processing.

I didn’t see her computer anywhere, but she seemed to be having a good time trying to digest our new book, um, literally. Mom and Dad are also very pleased, the book looks great!

You’ll find more information about The Photoshop Darkroom, and links to sample content below the cover image.

Front and back cover (PDF)
Table of Contents (PDF)
Introduction (PDF)
Sample content (Expanding tonal range by using layers, a layer mask and gradient to multi-RAW process a landscape, PDF)

Mathew likes to keep me company when I take studio pictures. He’ll press the remote release for me to lock the mirror up. We’ll hold really still. After a pause, he’ll press the release again to make the exposure, and we’ll count the seconds until the shutter closes with a thunk.

This is Mathew’s self portrait. He had me set the camera up, using lights and a burlap backdrop from a still life setup. Then he pressed the release.

When Mathew is sitting quietly counting exposure seconds with me, there is no sweeter child on earth. But when he runs amok, the “other side” of Mathew is an experience.

Yesterday, all six of us were at the new Berkeley Bowl West, quite a wonderful supermarket: more spacious, with adequate parking, and without the crowds that make the original Berkeley Bowl an ordeal despite the glorious produce.

Mathew grew wilder and wilder. He was walking the aisles with his comfort object, a blanket. Despite warnings, he tossed it in the air—and it vanished over the top of some tall freezer units.

I commandeered a step ladder, but the blanket was no where to be seen. Finally, Phyllis went to the information desk and came back with a burly and sweet employee, who told me, “When I was little, I had a blanket, too.”

It took taking some of the freezer units partially apart, and using a long metal “snake”—but at last the blanket was rescued, and handed to a slightly subdued Mathew.

Of course, in the annals of parenting, this may not even compare to my experience the other night: getting out of bed to pick the wailing Katie Rose up at 2AM, and promptly having her barf all over me. Sometimes being a parent ain’t easy, but it is almost always interesting!

Katie Rose is always cute (in my biased opinion). Here she has a strange hairdo in the bath!