More photography here and on my Instagram.
The view of the capitol building in Madison from the Madison Children’s Museum rooftop:
Mr. 3 Year Old and his cousin on the slide at the Madison zoo:
Stumbled upon this view atop a slide at a nearby suburban park:
Ascending a magically wooded tunnel of stairs adjacent to a sledding hill at another nearby park:
More stairs, this time at the DuPage Children’s Museum:
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Watching and waiting:
Really proud of capturing this absolutely perfect arc between the moon, basketball, hoop, and sun:
The 3 year old and his cousin tearing it up in Michigan:
Sandy sunset shadows:
Sure, sunset photos are cliché, but damned if I care:
Like I said:
More photography here and on my Instagram.
Into the tundra:
A ghostly window creature:
3 year old was “helping” me clean out the car on a warmer day by “fixing” a headrest with a wrench, but all you can really see is the reflection of the sun and clouds in the rear window:
Among the pines:
Stumbled upon this view (while walking on a bike path under a bridge), in which the sunlight hitting the dirty creek water formed an X-ceptional angle:
More shapely, shadowy scenes on aforementioned walk:
We celebrated Little Man’s third birthday this week (well, fourth if you count his actual day of birth). While looking through my photos of him I noticed a motif of capturing him from behind as he ventures forth at varying speeds.
I like this vantage point for a few reasons. Since we don’t post his name or face on the internet it’s a convenient angle for sharing. But it’s also an accurate representation of me watching him discover his world over and over again.
Most of the above shots are from very familiar places: our backyard, our local park, our regular family getaway spot. For me as a jaded adult visiting them can get monotonous, but there’s really no such thing to a toddler. Everything can be new and adventurous no matter how many times he’s encountered it.
That’s why I consider it a privilege to follow him into his great daily unknown. All I can do is hope to continue capturing these views, fleeting as they are.
While going through my library’s bevy of old staff and event photos, I encountered lots of what used to be commonplace but are now practically ancient artifacts: photo envelopes. Most of them were from the 1990s and early 2000s, which you can probably guess from the designs.
(See also: groovy ’70s library brochures.)
More photography here and on my Instagram.
Visited my alma mater for a meetup with friends and snagged this view, one I beheld many times as an undergrad:
Walkin’ in the rain:
Waiting for the darkness to descend on a Michigan beach ahead of the Independence Day fireworks (where I was stargazing with WALL-E):
Always a delight seeing my (and my son’s) favorite band, The Okee Dokee Brothers:
Anticipation in grandma’s backyard:
His first official haircut:
Bright spots during an evening concert in the park:
Came upon this leaf hitching a ride to work with me one morning:
Bummin’ around Boystown:
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Nice and clean newly painted line in a corner of my library’s under-renovation lower level:
We had some trees removed and the guy in the bucket truck looked like he was chillin’ on the roof despite actually floating through the air:
From our first time in Half Price Books without the stroller, where he definitely took advantage of his freedom:
While rock hunting at the beach I thought it’d be fun to throw one in the air and try to catch it on camera as it fell. This was the only shot that turned out, and it was kinda perfect:
Post-rain monkey bars at a local playground:
More photography here and on my Instagram.
This picture barely captures how cool the evening light was through these clouds at my local strip mall:
Remnants of winter:
Black Play-Doh + white Play-Doh = accidentally awesome marbled design:
“Aphyllous trees beneath cirrocumulus clouds” sounds like a line from “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” but is really just what I caught here at our park:
Just doing domino runs with Jenga blocks with the 2 year old:
On the move in Pure Michigan:
Liked the colors and lines here:
Shout-out to the kids playing pickup baseball at the park who probably have never seen The Sandlot but nevertheless showed why it’s such a timeless classic:
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A dusting on the pier at our local park:
Just following in Little Man’s footsteps:
This is either a failed photo or the perfect encapsulation of Christmas morning with a toddler:
Liked the colors and light in our front bushes (which still have Christmas lights on them) while taking out the trash early in the morning after a big snow:
From the same early morning, the edge of the driveway’s snow blower path was very satisfying to behold:
One day while working from home I saw Almost 2 Years Old and my wife rolling around the snow in the backyard:
More photography here and on my Instagram.
Watching this little wanderer discover the wilds of Pure Michigan™:
Caught some nice evening light in our local playground’s jungle gym:
Technically this will be Mr. 22 Month Old’s third winter (he was born during a blizzard), but the first he remembers and appreciates. Hence his major surprise and excitement when waking up to the first snow of the season:
And finally getting to use his shovel:
Did some hand tracing with Mr. 21 Months, which reminded me of a picture I took of us last year while on a walk. Using a crayon made our hands look chunkier than they really are, but little man’s hand in the picture was just as chunky as it looks.
We’re finally redoing the original kitchen in our 1956 house. Once the old metal Youngstown cabinets were removed, I noticed this collision of patterns on the unfinished wall:
I also discovered some old-school miscellanea:
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As much of a selfie I’m willing to muster:
From back in coat-wearing weather, the cover art for our future family band’s debut album:
Backyard greenery:
Exploring the tiny patch of wildness in our suburban backyard:
A fence post in the local park that’s seen better days:
Our backyard spruce tree showing signs of life:
The boy behind the curtain:
In the countryside, silos are the skyscrapers (that tiny white dot in the lower right corner is the moon):
We really try to keep our smartphones away from Mr. 13 Months. He’s elated when he does get his hands on one—usually just for photos or FaceTime—but then turns into Ring Withdrawal Bilbo when we take it away from him. And when he seizes the reins during FaceTime, he generates footage shakier than a Bourne movie, with occasional unflattering but funny shots of his chubby face from below.
Yesterday, though, while on the move with phone in hand, he accidentally opened the camera and managed to take a series of photos documenting his short trip from the hallway to the guest room:
Look at that natural progression from dark to light and from blurry to focused. Perhaps it’s meant to reinterpret common household fixtures in the abstract with askew angles as a comment on our uncertain post-COVID-19 world?
When reached for comment, he said, “*incomprehensible toddler babble*”
Genius!
More photography here and on my Instagram.
From our go-to park last fall:
Little man enjoying the ball pit at his cousin’s birthday party:
The inside view of Madison’s capitol dome:
Turns out kids love swings:
A few shots from probably the last snowfall of an extremely mild winter:
Love this photo by Adrian Borda, called “Under An Ocean of Words”, which captures the view from inside a typewriter looking up through smoke. I’ve seen this view plenty during repair and cleaning sessions, but never quite this dramatically. Perhaps I should take up smoking.
h/t Kottke
