Saw a portrait of a famous picture as a rendition of this pose. I thought I would try it out. Though I do like the result it is clear to me that the portrait I am copying was truly a portrait of that person and that personality. With leads me to explore the depths of what photography is capturing.

With a good photographer, the image presented is a glimpse into the world of the photographer. You are seeing a person or in some cases the world as the photographer sees it. The portrait I am trying to capture was striking. It had emotional depths. It was beautiful. Here, I am just doing a pose trying to capture body position. The image I like had so much more depth to it because it was telling a story.

So, though I did get an image I liked, it is not possible to simply capture an image by placing bodies in the same position you have seen them before. An image is captured when it shows life–life as the photographer experiences it.

A great lesson to learn.

Cyprus has now learned from his sister how to do a somersault (known simply as a "roll" in our house).

He now puts his hands and head on the ground and sticks him bum in the air while giggling and waiting for someone to help push him over. He finds rolling to be a very worthwhile entertaining activity.

Daphne managed to get her daddy to get her a little toy out of the quarter machine at the grocery store when I sent them on a quick dinner errand.

Of course, the prize quickly became one of Daphne’s favorite possessions. It kept her entertained for the entire rest of the night. Here, she is showing me the glow-in-the-dark lobster that we then managed to put up on the wall along with her glow-in-the-dark stars.

Who ever would have thought that lobsters can survive in space?

Not really trying to be lazy here, but it ended up not being the perfect shot.

This was taken using my 5mp HTC Hero phone. I was at the children’s museum with the kids in Salem and they have one of those funny mirrors that make you look skinny and fat at the same time. I was wanting to take a picture of the distortion but I only managed to get really funky looking hands.

This is the first of my shots that I have done using my phone, so I’m not doing too badly.

The reason that I have been so behind on posting is twofold. Firstly, it is summer so it is the time to pick berries and freeze and can and garden and do all the things that need to be done in the summer to prepare for the winter. Since I am obsessive about picking all the berries possible and canning every bit of produce as many ways as possible, I basically spend all summer enjoying my kids and putting my food preservation skills to the test.

The other reason is that Cyprus is now walking and my life is changed forever. I have gone from being able to let him sit and play in a room to having to follow him and chase him around to keep him out of danger. His current favorite perches are 1.) on top of the dining room table and 2.) in the window sill that overlooks the chicken run. Both are not very safe places that he manages to climb up to despite my very best efforts.

Don’t get me wrong, I love running around with him watching him discover everything in this world that he finds amazing, it just leaves me with little other time or energy at the end of the day.

The good news is that it generally wears him out pretty good and so I get a soundly sleeping baby to enjoy while I spend the evening wrapping up the day’s activities.

Julie and I decided to try and have Copper sleep over at our house. Sleep overs are a fun thing for the girls to look forward to and a good way to exchange little breaks for the moms.

As a trial run, we had Copper stay here. Well, I’m not sure that I am ready to have other kids sleep over here. The girls ran around very crazy, played hard, stayed up late and got up early. It was definitely an adventure!

I did get to catch this sweet moment before it passed me by in the whirlwind of activity. Daphne had put on her very pretty dress and was having a dance show with Copper to show it off.

Only thing better than the fair is an elephant ear at the fair.

Oregon State Fair. Oh yeah! It is BIG.

More fun at the beach that requires me abusing my camera by putting it in the sand to get the best possible photo.

I love to watch Cyprus at the beach because he is so, so busy. He has an agenda that keeps him busy the entire time and he can’t be bothered to do anything but play. Oh to be one year old again.