one month later

If I’ve been a little absent around here, there’s a good reason. It’s a cute little reason with incredibly pinchable cheeks, but this reason still loves to wake up at night and scream/growl/grunt at me.

This past Sunday afternoon, just before the light died away completely, Michelle and I were staring at our little girl in her adorable pink dress when we realized that she had turned one-month old without us doing a little photo session for her. She was already in an adorable dress, so we got right to the session. Michelle even prettied herself up a little (afternoon naps tend to mess up one’s hair, after all) and jumped in the shot.

Here’s a couple early favorites.

Yes, I am a very, very lucky man.

collaboration

When I went to install my show at the local gallery (which I mentioned before and will give more details about soon), I took a moment to check out the other artists’ work. One particular photographer, Ali Mocabee, caught my eye, so I went to her website and browsed around for a bit. I saw a link on her blog that said to add her in facebook, so I did.

A few days later, after we had had the baby, I got an email from her asking if she could come play with our baby. She was wanting to try out some natural lighting techniques she had learned but that couldn’t really be practiced without a model (i.e., a fresh, sleepy baby). We had the baby and love pictures, so we said yes!

She came over yesterday and brought a really fun bag of toys that we got to break out and play with for a couple of hours. Cate was a great model and slept almost the whole time. Except for when she pooped in my hand (don’t worry…I caught it all. Nothing got on the floor). Ali and I both shot a ton and I’m really happy with both what I got in the camera and with the whole experience and practice.

Michelle wouldn’t let me go to sleep tonight until I edited at least a couple of her favorites, so here you go!

Ali brought this AWESOME pink petticoat that we bunched up and used as a cushion for Cate. I love this series.

This last one was so yummy, I had to serve it up in two flavors!

If this just whets your appetite, don’t worry! There are plenty more to come!

an announcement and a contest!

So I’m going to be doing a show in a local gallery, and the gallery owner said I could display 15 images. Since I’m relatively unknown here in the area, it’s a great opportunity to showcase some of my personal work, but also to display the work I’ve done for some of my clients. I’ve tried and tried to select those 15 perfect images, and I’m just not getting there all by myself. I posted the images to my facebook page and petitioned help there and on twitter, and I’ve loved the response! So, I decided to open this up and make it even more fun.

I’m holding a contest! ***UPDATE*** the contest voting is closed!

I’m going to leave the voting open until Wednesday evening, March 4th, at 5 pm (Central time). At that time, I’ll count up the votes and choose my 15 images. The client whose gallery image receives the most votes will get to keep the gallery print when the display comes down! That’s right, baby: a free print! Depending on how big I print them, that could be worth something!

So, what can you do? Drum up the votes! Tell your friends, tell your co-workers, tell your family! Send them a link to the blog post and tell them to come vote! They can vote on up to 15 images to help me whittle them down.

Voting is easy: you can

• leave a comment on facebook on the pictures you want to vote for (if you’re my facebook friend),
• send me a facebook message (even those who aren’t my friend can do that, as long as you have an account) with the image numbers you’re voting for,
• send me an email (rikandesphoto at gmail dot com) with the image numbers you’re voting for,
• dm or @reply me on twitter (twitter.com/rikandes) with the image numbers you’re voting for,
• leave a comment on this post right here with the image numbers you’re voting for,
• click on the images below you want to vote for and leave a comment there,
• find me and tell me the numbers in person–just make sure I write them down!

Here’s the link to my facebook album: http://bit.ly/k9QEd

Or the link to this post: http://bit.ly/9ZWnD

Good luck, and stay tuned for a separate announcement regarding the show dates and location of the gallery!

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The fine print: I withhold the right to make the final judgment over which images get into the gallery showing. The client image *in the gallery* with the most votes will get the print.