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Danger’s Crew at CC

Danger Gill turned a year old about a month ago, so he and his crew met me at Carbon Canyon to recreate some photos we had done there when Becky was still pregnant. We didn’t recreate many, but a lot of the other shots turned out great. I love this family, and the chance to be there as they grow is one I cherish.

Without further ado, here’s a sampling of what we took. For those of you reading this at 22:00 Sunday, I’ll add more a little later.

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This is one I like to call “Who’s this lady think she is, trying to get my Cheerios?!?”

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Two Teachers Fair

I met with Tracy and Natasha today to do some beach photography. Of course, the clouds rolled in just as we got there, so we couldn’t take advantage of the light we wanted. Nevertheless, these two lovely ladies still managed to take some great photos.

I’ll add more pictures later, but what I have up in the gallery so far is available here.

Samples are below; as always, click for larger versions.


Tracy, in what is probably my favorite shot of the day:

And of course, what shoot wouldn’t be complete without Tash clowning around?

P.S. Tracy: it was nice to meet you again for the first third time. ;)

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Danger Rides Again

I worked on a few more shots of Declan tonight and wanted to share them. I’ll try and add some more later if I get time.

From a technical standpoint, the first shot is terrible. It’s out of focus, framed poorly, and just feels kind of awkward. But then you look at Danger’s expression (“what the HECK are my parents doing to me?”), and it makes it a total winner.

There are a lot of great photos in this set, but I think this one is my favorite. Seriously, how cute is this kid?

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Los Branquias a la Playa

(The Gills at the Beach :) )

Edit: More shots are available here.

I met the Gills at Corona Del Mar for some shots in celebration of Danger’s 9th month. We lucked out and had pretty good light, although it would have been much better without the incoming storm blocking the sun.

Here are all the shots I have in the gallery for now. Click away to see larger versions.

So, the idea for the shot on the left was that dad (blue) + mom (yellow) = Danger (green). As soon as blue and yellow walked away into the background, green went straight for the sand. He looked thoroughly annoyed that he had this sticky stuff all over his hands, but he went for it time and time again. Too funny.

Edit: I’m pretty sure the photo on the right was shot by Becky, so kudos to her!

A parting, contemplative shot for you.

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Danger Gill

I travelled to the far-off province of Fullerton tonight to shoot Declan “Danger” Gill as he approaches his 7th month. As you can see here, he’s a cute kid and is a lot of fun to hang around. Since his mom hasn’t seen the full set yet, I’m only putting up a few samples in the full gallery. Enjoy.

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Sonja’s Birthday Bash

Meet Sonja K. It’s her birthday.

I had the honor of shooting her at the Melting Pot in Brea for her celebration. Seeing as how I’m a gentleman, I wouldn’t ever give away a lady’s age, but suffice it to say she’s old enough to buy her own alcohol now.

Here, Ben does his husbandly duty and delivers the birthday spanking. His hand was so sore after all those swats that we had to amputate his arm. Poor guy.

Sonja had custom M&Ms made for her party. It was a really cute idea, but I think it would have been funnier if they had been peanut M&M’s. The variety of peanut shapes would have made for some great mods to the pictures. ;)

As always, more pictures are available in the full gallery. As I write this, I only have a few up, but will continue to add more. Even so, I thought this picture was worth sharing as part of the initial batch. I have no idea what’s going on.

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Declan Redux

I got together with Mr. Declan Gill and his parents again tonight. He was alternately cranky and happy, but a pretty good subject either way. Even shooting with my sublime 50mm f/1.4 lens I still had difficulty getting a fast enough shutter speed to freeze him. Next time we meet for a shoot I’ll explain the finer points of shutter speed and aperture. Maybe then he’ll sit still for a bit. ;)

I’m still working on getting a larger collection together, but I’d though I’d post some samples until then:

D with his momma:

D and me, shot courtesy of Trevor:

We tried to get a nice, calm picture of D resting in his dad’s hands, but we tried to do this upfront when he was hungry and all shaky-like. As you can guess, it didn’t work out all that well. :) Here’s one of the better ones:

Gear used: Canon 40d with 50mm f/1.4 lens, Expodisc warm balance filter, Smith Victor basic light kit and Port-a-Stand background stand.

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Casino Point, Catalina Island

Note: if you hear sound, scroll down to the bottom of this post and press pause. Chances are the video is autoplaying when it shouldn’t be. That said….

I, and my friends Ben and Sonja took the Catalina Express over to Avalon Saturday to do some diving at the Casino Point dive park. The morning started out a little cold and overcast, but within a few hours the day turned beautiful. The diving was just as good, with excellent visibility, no current, and decently warm water. Alas, I don’t have many photos to share, but here’s a sample.

Here’s me with the Jacques Cousteau honorary plaque:

Sonja, apparently napping on the bottom:

I found this nudibranch on one of the wrecks. He was around 1 inch long. Not sure what species it was, but it was beautiful in person.

Ben and Sonja work their way through the kelp:

A juvenile garibaldi, with its opalescent spots:

Ben and I after a veeeeeery long day in Catalina:

This video isn’t particulary interesting, but I put it up so that you can see a sample of what diving in the park is like. Lots of kelp and sunshine. I’m holding the camera, and that’s Ben’s rear in the lead. If you want to download the whole video, or just want to open it in its own window, click here.

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Mr. Declan James Gill, Lady Killer

It took him a while to arrive, but Becky and Trevor’s new son is finally here. They needed a photo for their birth announcements, and I was only too happy to oblige. I think big D was about a week old when we did this.

Much to my surprise, Declan was actually one of the hardest subjects I’ve ever photographed. I haven’t been around a newborn in years, so I had forgotten how active they were. Declan was full of energy, and despite promises of money and candy, he didn’t stay still much. Cute kid, but he doesn’t listen very well.

Two more, experimenting with Becky’s rings on his feet. I’m not sure where she got the idea from, but I think it’s rather cute.

The screen door was used as a gobo for this shot, adding a little bit of crime noir to the scene. ;)

The poor guy was having a tough time of it in the warm blanket and Trevor was in a hurry to get to his soccer game, so we cut it short. As much as Becky loves this child, I suspect that we’ll be doing quite a few more shoots in the future.

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