A look back

Kent's been taking our group family pictures at Thanksgiving for five years now. While he took pictures in 2009 and 2008, he didn't have his remote clicker which meant no group photos like these.

You can see the kids grow and change and you can also see how incredibly good Kent's gotten with his photography.

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

Room with a view

Kent's rented some lenses for our trip this Thursday. He likes to rent before he buys, and given how expensive camera lenses can be, I heartily approve. For this trip, he's got a wide angle among others and he's been running around taking lots of pictures with it.

Normally I'm not all that fond of wide angle lens photos but I like this one and thought it showed how open our living room is.

Click the photo for a bigger version.

We'll never put curtains on the windows flanking the fireplace. That view is just too beautiful even when the trees have no leaves.

Paparazzi

If you and I are friends on Facebook, then you saw a couple of new pictures of me on Sunday. There's a reason for the new pictures. Kent got some new camera lenses last week and has a sweet new camera body coming later this week. Plus he's taking a photography class. Those pictures were for assignments he had to turn in last night.

He's taken classes before; first when he was an undergrad and more recently just a couple of years ago he found some great online classes that he enjoyed a lot. But what's been missing is a chance for him to get his work critiqued by someone who is knowledgeable about photography in general and what makes for good shots specifically.

This photo on the left is my favorite picture of Kent, hands down. He took it using a timer or a remote (forget which, sorry). What I've always loved about the photo is the way the lighting works on his face, plus the contrast of his polished jacket, shirt and glasses with the slight scruff on his face. I've wanted a similar shot of me (minus the scruff, obviously) ever since.


Last spring he gave it a try but I didn't care for the results. That picture is fine in technical terms but it doesn't have the same look his does. So he tried again on Sunday. This picture on the right is closer to his but isn't quite there yet.

On the left, I'm doing my best Vala Mal Doran imitation. We have been enjoying watching old Star Gate episodes; she's one of our favorite characters and according to Kent is a lot like me.



And finally he shot this picture Sunday night too, but had to wait and wait until the sun cooperated and came out from behind a cloud. I am not sure if that was part of the assignment or just how he wanted the picture to be. I will say the wine was pretty tasty, although I didn't get to drink any until after he'd gotten enough shots.

Kent

My husband is a pretty damn good photographer. If you've checked out his blog, you already know this. But yesterday he took pictures of me, partly at my request and partly to test out his new camera and new lens. I'm not always easy to photograph because I have the ability to blink at exactly the wrong time--in fact our wedding photographer commented on that and also used a picture of me with my eyes closed in his studio. So that tendency of mine is very real.

Nevertheless, Kent got this picture of me and I really like it.

Super quick update

Kent is busy processing the over 200 photographs he took this week. As he uploads them, I'll be snagging the best of the best and putting them here. Meanwhile, here's a great picture of the three little girls in their dresses I made for them.

Who knew?

I'm in Boston for the Memorial Day weekend, and it's been pretty warm. And WINDY. I thought perhaps I'd returned to Kansas somehow. But no, as we got blown around the city today, the historic sites were still those of Boston.

Anyway to return to the title of this entry--even after knowing my husband for nine years, and being married to him for going on five years, well he still manages to surprise me. He's always had an interest in photography (you there, quit rolling your eyes, he does and he's pretty dang good). Well he's set himself a challenge before he will allow himself to invest in expensive camera equipment: he must take a picture a day, for a year.

So far, so good. He's even set up a blog about it (far less wordy than this one is). Check it out.