Pulling Up

Our little boy is growing up too fast!!  He now thinks that he's old enough to be pulling himself up to standing on pretty much everything.  The fireplace hearth, window ledges, chairs, his carseat (which of course rocks back and makes him fall), etc.  The really tough thing is we think he's probably still too young to understand consequences and the word "No," (I heard they start getting that at about 9mo - 1yr, which is about the time they usually start doing this skill... go figure) so I just have to watch over him closely and move him myself if I think he's in a dangerous situation instead of being able to tell him "No."  Oh well, he'll learn soon enough and hopefully won't get too many bumps along the way!  :)

Oh, and I love how protective Brad is here - keeping his hands up at all times to catch him in case he falls.  So sweet.

Life Behind the Lens

I'm sure by now, anyone who frequents our blog is well aware of my wife's burgeoning photography skill.  As you can tell from each of our posts, photos are rapidly becoming a significant aspect of our life as we desperately try to capture and preserve every last memory of this indescribable journey called 'parenthood.'  I'm constantly amazed by Kayla's ability to capture everyday moments from a unique angle or perspective, giving our family photos a level of artistic realism that's impossible to describe through words.

As most of you may also know, my wife has largely taught herself this skill in her exceptionally limited spare time (for any fellow parents out there, let me define this phrase 'spare time.'  It's a purely theoretical term used to describe the minutes in your life when you are allowed to focus on one or two items rather than the typical 5+).

While her photographic skill and knowledge have clearly grown substantially over the past few months, my wife's natural humility prevents her from adequately acknowledging that fact.  So I thought I would do it for her.
Not sharing my wife's proclivity for humility, I thought this would also be a good opportunity to show off a few of the photos that I have taken as well, since I fancy myself a bit of a master photographer in my own right.  In each of the following pairs, my photo is on the left and Kayla's in on the right...




First up is the photo shoot we did for my sister and her family.  With a family this incredible and fun, it was not difficult to get some great shots.  In my photo (on the left), I decided to capture an action shot which I consider one of my more artistic creations.  It captures the 'blur' which is a typical day in the McKim household. I think the neighbors trashcan also creates a 'homey' feel to the photo.  Kayla's photo, I guess, does a decent job of capturing how fun these boys are.

Next up is our first 'snow shoot.'  In photography, photo composition is very important.  I felt that in my picture, it was best to have half the picture show our neighbor driving his car down the street while Kayla waves her hand in front of West's face.  Kayla took a slightly different approach with her picture by zooming in a little closer - something to do with capturing the sparking eyes of a boy who's experiencing snow for the first time, I don't know.  

This was a quick evening photo shoot just to get out and enjoy the weather and practice with the camera.   I consider these photos practically identical in quality so I won't waste time discussing them.

Good photographers know that the background makes or breaks a photo.  During this shoot, I recommended this pile of discarded railroad ties as a cool setting for a picture since nothing says 'fun family portrait' like a pile of rotting dead wood.  In Kayla's picture, she decided to use the train tracks as the background.  I'll let you be the judge of which worked better.

So in summary, I think it's easy to see that Kayla and I have slightly different photography styles and, for the time being, I will not be quitting my day job any time soon.  All joking aside, however, I can't even begin to explain how proud and thankful I am for my wife and her ability to save our family's memories is such an awesome way.  And for anyone who believes that a quality camera can automatically take a quality photo, please review the photos above again.

Silly boy

On a short walk the other day he would get excited with every gust of wind. It was hilarious!