This year Scarlett did hip hop as her dance class and the instructor selected a Pink Ladies meets Hip Hop sort of outfit for the kids. Like last year I did a portrait session with Scarlett in her costume. Unlike last year, it actually came out nice this year. (Last year I rushed it and the lighting was off)

After seeing another dad do it last year, I decided to rent a lens this year so I could have much better low light performance. I rented the 70-200 II IS L lens. On the plus side, I was very happy with how close I was able to zoom to Scarlett without having to push the ISO past the limits of my camear. On the minus side, I just don’t have that much experience with dance photography and this year Scarlett’s class only had one dance. So although the lens was a reasonable $100 to rent, I am not sure if I’m going to do it again next year (assuming Scarlett does dance class again) since I only got 3 photos worth sharing.

Danielle and I went to Mount Vernon back when we first moved here and were exploring new things to do in our free time that were unique to the area.

We’d thought of bringing our parents to see Washington’s house and property, but the timing never quite worked out - you really want to visit in the Spring or Fall, not during the Summer or Winter. So it remained a place we’d only been to once even as we made multiple trips to the same couple Smithsonian museums and zoos.

This Easter we went to the farm so they kids could hunt for eggs there and then enjoy the farm. Unlike my childhood, Easter’s pretty cold up here as you can see.

It’s pretty ridiculous to me, considering almost my entire childhood consisted of going to the local park.

Stella’s been enjoying horseback riding for a bit now, but this was the first time she was old enough to do it on her own without me holding onto her the entire time.

Saw this while waiting to merge onto a street. I need to challenge this guy to a cook-off. Winner gets the license plate!

I brought out all my old cars for the kids to play with. They’re having a blast even if they don’t know who any of the old McDonald’s toys are representing. I have the Chip n’ Dale Rescue Rangers DVDs, but the kids haven’t shown interest in it yet. (They find it way scarier than Duck Tales)

A took a bunch of photos during Têt this year, but just wanted to share a few formal portraits I took and a photo from dim sum.

It’s been six years in the making, but GIMP is finally out with their GEGL-enabled version. Although some pros had made use of it, it is now 90% of the way towards being a Photoshop replacement. The next+1 release with non-destructive layer edits will finally get it there. I’m also happy it can use RawTherapee as a RAW image editing plugin.

I’ve both added and dropped some podcasts since last time around. Where I’m listing the same podcast as last year I may use the same description as in the past with slight (or no) variation.

Public Radio

Radiolab – Heard about them because sometimes their stories are used on This American Life. Radiolab is a lot like TAL except with a much bigger focus on sound effects. It is, in a way, the descendant of the old radio shows of the 30s and 40s. (Approx 30-45 min)

Stella saw us taking photos of Scarlett and wanted to have some portraits again. So here are her portraits.