holidays up north: vacation, wheaton style

i figured i would kind of give you all a break from family shots at the beach for a moment here. and in the spirit of giving thanks, family and the turning of the seasons… i offer you a glimpse (not that you asked…) into our little family vacation these past few days. we hopped in the car (nana, my wife, our little girl and myself) dark and early on my birthday (wednesday morning) to make the trek to our friends’ in nor cal. it was our daughter’s first real road trip and we could not have asked for her to be more perfect. let’s just jump right in. shall we?

almost as soon as we arrived, we headed over to the park to play with our friends’ kids and some of their friends. little d loves the swings, so she even got to have some fun.

i tried to muster a shot that entered my mind with the lens i was stuck with. it kinda worked. i kinda love it.

i climbed onto some of the jungle gym and caught what are now a few of my favorite photos of our little girl and of her with my wife.

this is our friends’ little girl. for some reason, some of my favorite shots i get of her are always while she has something going on that makes the picture seem a throw-away. she just gets this calmness about her, i guess, when she is pre-occupied. who knows… maybe Horizon Organic will contact me for using it as an ad?  :)

just some of what makes petaluma take the breath out of me sometimes.

and here is our little girl all dressed up for her first thanksgiving with our friends up north.

and this is my wife (melissa) with the middle generation of our friends (colleen). she is a dear friend that melissa has basically known all of her life, for the most part. and she is crafty as all get out. i cannot even tell you how many things she has made for us and little d. oh, for instance… she made that dress in the shot above for her and the little kicker she has on her head too! and, i might bet you that she made what she has on below, as well.

so… i will try to keep this from being a “you had to be there” kind of thing. for those of you on facebook, i will post a video soon. but our little girl does this thing we now call “mind control” where she tenses all up and kinda stares at you and shakes a little. the best is when she shakes her face just right so her big old cheeks just rattle along. good times.

it became clear to me again this weekend how much i love just taking photos. how i love the organic process of just shooting as things happen. i had my camera out even less than i would have liked to, but i got a handful of shots that are up at the top of my all-time faves (for now). i just love this moment with my two girls.

again, for those of you on my facebook, you know about one of the things that really got me excited about this particular trip. i usually try to break away for at least a half day of just photo-exploration. not always with a destination in mind. but this trip, our friend andy and i got up early and headed out to the small town of bodega. this is the home to the church that was used in the alfred hitchcock film “the birds”. i have been an enormous (not a pun aimed at the size of the director) fan of hitchcock since i can remember. so any opportunity to walk around and even capture a hitchcockian monument … well, it makes me giddy beyond words.

the top photos are the same… i just loved how much different this looked in hitchcockian black-and-white. of note, getting the second shot cost me a few rips in my pants from a barbed-wire fence. well worth it.

before getting back to the house, we made a brief stop at the rocks above dillon beach. i have no words… just photos.

while d and i were sharing some time while the mom’s shopped, she allowed me to take a few goofy shots of her.below is her excitement when she pulls out certain faves of her animal flash cards. she does so love the ducky.

and now for a storyboard of her excitement when ‘chica’ makes an appearance on the sprout channel:

you can tell when i am shooting more for me, because i will bring out my old argus camera. i just love the way things look through its viewfinder and the final product from it usually dizzies me in a good way… speaking to the side of me that used to love sifting through old family photos.so here is a handful of some of my faves from a little walk we all took together with my argus doing the story-telling.

i have high hopes for the reception of some of these quick shots i took of colleen and the kids on their porch that evening. hopefully i am not the only one who loves these this much.   :)

and here are the kids hanging out on their porch bench. i love the “group shots” we get with d in them. it makes my mind time-travel ahead to when she will look at these photographs…

… and i smile everytime that i imagine her saying “oh, that’s me and ______ ” … easily recalling different moments in her life that she shared with people that she loves. we all know that is what the holidays are about. family and friends and the love that we feel for those people becoming a tangible thing. and by that, i don’t mean a present. but, rather, a hug and a kiss on the cheek. a few days out of our life where we spend time reminiscing with the people that have helped shape us into who we are. and now that i am older, and can see things in this light, saying “i wish it were christmas every day” takes on a new meaning for me. because if any or all of us could be that wrapped up in love and affection and basic human kindness…. wouldn’t the world just be that much better?

** thanks for reading and looking through this post. i know it is a more personal one, in nature… but it does resemble my work as well. i hope each and every one of you had a blessed holiday and can continue to enjoy the holidays to come. **