A morning at the beach

I photographed my other niece and two nephews this morning at the beach.

Thomas, 1, is has the bluest eyes and is cuter than any Gap model. I saw him two months ago at our wedding, and already he's gotten so much bigger! Look how grown up he is, with his polo shirt and cargo shorts.

Morgan, almost 5, has beautiful curls and the sweetest smile. Here's a joke from Morgan: "What kind of dog has no tail?"

Answer: a hot dog.

Jack, 7, is a terrific big brother. He taught me (well, tried to teach me) how to throw a baseball. Here's a joke from Jack: "Have a nice trip! See you next fall!" (Get it?)

We walked around Fire Island along the water. The beach was so stunning it looked like a movie set -- and it's within easy reach of Manhattan. Except for one stretch of nude sunbathers, we practically had the whole beach to ourselves.

At first, Thomas wasn't sure if he liked the sand. Mom piled it over his feet so he could get used to wiggling his toes in it. A few minutes later, he took off in a wobbly run down the beach and didn't even need the reassurance of his mom's hand.

And one more joke from Morgan: "Why did the boy throw the clock out the window?"

(He wanted to see how time flies.)

A picture of the whole family. Morgan started feeling under the weather, so after some snacks at the beach, we headed back along the boardwalk.

Jambool's co-founders

My career in newspapers has made me uniquely qualified to answer phone calls from angry people and talk them off the ledge. I'm applying this skill in my new part-time job in customer support at Jambool, a Seattle tech company.

Here are Jambool's hard-working co-founders, Reza and Vikas.

The company is located in an building downtown that's been re-configured to house modern office spaces. The bones of the gracious old building are still there. Every day I go in, I have a strong urge photograph someone in the beautiful stairwells and windows.

Jake's senior pictures

Understandably, Kathy was a little worried about the two people driving around in her Honda. One was her teenage son, Jake, with a learner's permit; the other was me, a city transplant who hasn't driven in three years.


Jake drove back to the house without hitting anyone, and I got a great tour of West Seattle. It was the most beautiful Saturday in weeks, the perfect day for doing senior portraits.

Jake is headed to Eastern Washington this fall. Look at that blingin' tassel!

Jake suggested this picture against the concrete wall along his driveway. I like the way it turned out. We did get some funny looks from Kathy, who pulled into her driveway to see me sprawled out flat on the ground to make this picture.

A photo book for Nora

Just finished making Matt, Jan and Nora's pictures into a photo book. There's something I love about turning printed pages, and I'm not just saying this as a former newspaper designer. It's one thing to hand someone a DVD with jpeg files, but it's much, much nicer to leaf through a book of pictures.




Besides, the book gives me extra chances to show off pictures of my niece!

The finished book ended up with 26 pages. I could have easily gone on many pages beyond that, but I restrained myself with some good picture editing judgement.

I'm planning on bringing over the book next time we're in the Tri-Cities -- I hope they will like it!