Today was a big day for Mr. James but I think he is beginning to wear us out.  We headed south this morning to the awesome Moody Gardens to check out the Aquarium. 

James was all talk the whole way to the aquarium.  He kept telling us about all the animals he was going to see. The funniest thing was that every place we have been this week we have seen those little machines that smash a penny for 50 cents.  So I gave him the money and apparently it was a big hit.  He chose a shark penny since sharks and lions are his favorite BEASTS OF THE WILD!

We entered the aquarium and James' voice went about three octaves higher.  There were not a lot of people there but they all knew James had arrived.  Right off the bat James wanted to touch the star fish.  The guy at the exhibit was about as exciting as watching paint dry. 

So we kept moving through the Aquarium and I was busy photographing fish.  Apparently our little Canon S5 has this Aquarium mode that is supposed to assist the user when photographing fish.  If you were going to look for a camera that did this I would strongly recommend finding a new hobby.  Nothing is more annoying than trying to focus on a fish darting back and forth in an aquarium. 

This is a pretty green anemone (spelling) with a fast little blue fish in the middle.  Be careful using this type of scientific naming convention.  It is typically used only by us deep sea aquarium photographers....

This guy reminds me of the people behind the counter at the post office.  I call him Mr. Angry Eyes.

At the base of the Aquarium there is a big shark tank. James was excited about seeing his second most favorite animal int the world. 

When we got to the entrance a man told me we better hurry because they were cleaning the tank!  Nobody would take a picture with the guys cleaning the tanks so I had to do it. 

Mr. Aquarium tank window washer guy was a real sport and waved for the camera.  James thought it was the funniest thing next to the seals swimming by the windows. 

James climbed in the shark cage and showed us his best dance moves. 

After the sharks we checked out the penguins.  We found that James was just about the size of a the King Penguin.  Notice the feet and arms in the proper Mary Poppins Penguin Dance style.

We decided to leave and go get a bite to eat but before we left I wanted to take some photos of the palm trees with the S5.  Here is a neat little camera trick. This image has a sun flare that is split with 8 lines.  This is because I shot this image at an aperture of f8.  If I had taken the image at f22 there would be close to 22 flares. 

We headed over to the Rain forest Cafe with James thinking this might be fun. 

Apparently he doesn't care too much for large mechanical animals that scream and yell every thirty minutes.  The Gor-Il-La-La really bothered him at first.  So I showed him it was cool and we should be really be sweet to big plastic animals that look like us but aren't real. 

So we ate lunch and checked out the store.  After all it was supposed to be a wild place to eat and shop...  We did manage to find a nice assortment of cups with names on them.  Apparently Crystal had been shopping right before us. 

We headed home after lunch but stopped off at a FootLocker for some new shoes for mommy.  The store had music blaring and James entertained the staff with his sick dance moves.   We piled in the car exhausted but did get a big kick out of a shopping center that was home to a Vet Clinic and a Sushi and Steak restaurant.  They were literally in the same building.   Err, I will take the dog meat and eel roll but please go easy on the wasabi.

Posted by danny at 08:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was a rather low key day for James.  We have had him going non stop for almost a week now and he needed a bit of a break.  Wednesday nights we eat dinner at Bethany United Methodist for their Prime Time Wednesday.  They have pretty good grub.  The kids get to go play and watch Veggie Tales and the adults attend classes.

Since these are pretty big nights for the kids we took it easy on James.  We caught an IMAX movie at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. 

We watched the 3D Imax movie Wild Safari.  None of us have actually seen a 3D Imax movie so it was something new for all.  The Museum was unusually dark due to the rain and the lights being replaced so we were limited on photography.

We had to wait a little bit before the show so James expressed his discontent by just laying on the floor.  Lines are for tourists!

When you enter the movie they give you these really sleek and stylish 3D glasses. 

Notice the ever so slight biting of my lower lip.  Yet again a genetic cross-over of the Clark DNA.

The movie was great but James was a little concerned about the wild beasts in his face.  I think this is one of the best 3D movies I have ever seen.  Of course I have only seen two others in my life.  One being the ever cool Remo Williams back in 1985 or the completely useless expansion CD of Shrek .  Neither had ultra cool classes that made me look younger and thinner.

If you ever get a chance to catch one of these movies I recommend doing so.  But be careful with the little kids.  They may not fully comprehend that the 30,000 foot drop to the African desert is not real. 

Posted by danny at 09:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today was Whitney's second day of school and James' third day of vacation.  I took Whitney to school and then headed to the studio to get a little work done.  Its been a few years since I was moving about when the rest of the world does too.  Most days I don't even get to the studio until 10.  I was able to get a bunch of stuff done and made it back home in time to chill with little man.

Mommy was busy so we watch Yo Gabba Gabba.  This is the absolute strangest show but James just loves it.  I think the only thing cool about the show is that I saw The Diabolical Biz Markie for a cameo.

Now if you don't know Biz Markie he is an old school rapper form the 80's.  He had a smash hit back in 89 called "Just a Friend." 

I personally think he was at his all time best when he tore up one of Elton Johns classics "Bennie and the Jets"

Back to the day with James.

We gathered everything up and headed over to the Houston Children's Museum. This is a really cool spot to hang out for a day.  They are renovating the museum so some of the fun outdoor stuff was not available.  They are actually building a second facility and upgrading their water park outside. 

When you first enter the museum they give you this little sticker after you have paid.  Not real sure why they do this but everyone seems to obey and wear the sticker.  I have often wondered what they would do if I was to remove the sticker.  The best part is what you do with the sticker when you leave. 

Because of the construction being done they gave all the kids little yellow hard hats.  James went right to work having a good time.  They have a big train that seems to immediately slow the kids down.  You don't get 5 feet in the museum before everything stops. 

After the train we headed over to the grocery store.  James had a big time here.  My buddy Farrah was testing out high ISO settings the other day so I decided to do the same thing.  I shot some of the images at 1250 ISO and others between 1600 and 2500.  They were all pretty grainy but it was fine for this purpose. 

We moved on to the invention Lego station.  They had the really cool blocks that you could build all sorts of things.  James thought they were rather tasty too.  And people wonder why their children get sick. 

Mommy enjoyed the building games too. 

After we were done playing with the block things, we went to a new exhibit where we built our own rockets and shoot them in the sky.  James never wanted to leave this area.  He even requested a second visit before we left.  You place them on a launch pad and stomp on a air trigger to make them fly.

This was a really dark area of the museum so I had to bump the ISO way up.  The images were super noisy but you still got the full effect.  (Tech note: White balance is not easy to control at such a high ISO.  I don't think even using a grey card would help.)

After we finished with the rockets we went to the Lego car derby exhibit.  The object here was to build your own Lego car and then race it against other kids on a track.  James was hitting 5:1 odds on anything in the middle track.  He was able to pull in a little extra to buy his mother a sandwich. (I am just kidding....  he bought me a sandwich too). 

So after we stomped all the other kids in the museum we headed over to the cafe for a snack.  James had his favorites Cheetos and Kool Aid.

Next we were up for a little face painting. James was timid at first but then realized this was a lot of fun. 

He was not very good or creative so I managed to clean his face and do the paint job right.

He thought he was super cool and Denise said he looked regal. So we found a kings crown and took his portrait ot the throne.

He can be a pretty sweet kids when he is getting all the attention.   

Next up was the telephone world.  We played with the TV phones but apparently the only thing James could hear was fuzz and all I heard was "What?"

We were busy making our way out of the museum but we had to check out the gift shop.  Luckily we didn't buy anything but they had the super cool Kalidascopes.  This one was like a giant fish eye lens that made the area around you get all distorted.

If you look close you will see that this is actually Denise in her pink shirt .

Here is another one that I took.  Shortly after that the lady at the counter was watching me closely.  I just knew she was looking to see if I had my sticker!

So we headed home but had to dispose of our stickers first.  On the way there are stop signs and light poles covered in these little stickers.  I guess it is a neat way to decorate the city around the Children's Museum. 

We got in the car and headed out to Roberts to pick up Whitney.  She had a great day and came home with a green ticket.  After she gets ten she gets to visit the treasure chest. 

Posted by danny at 08:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

After our ultra exciting morning with Whitney we headed home to get a few things done before taking James to the Houston Zoo.  James recently discovered the strangest show on Nck Jr. called Yo Gabba Gabba.  This is the strangest show I have encountered but he sure did like it.  Here is a little sample I found on U-Tube.

So Denise and I finished our stuff and headed to the Zoo. 

 Right after we got there is started to pour down raining.  We held up in one of the little food courts for about an hour.  I don't know if you ave ever been trapped with a wild animal but we definitely were.  He was climbing up the walls to go check out the Lions.  The rain let up and we headed to the Lions den.  We found the big guy laying riht next to the window.  James thought this was the coolest thing ever. Up until the lion saw us and gave James a look that pretty much said "I don't know Karate but I know Crazy and I will be happy to use it on your boy."

We gradually made our way over to the carousel and rode it a couple times.  I made James ride the tiger but he was not very happy about it.  Mommy rode it again with him but they sat in the big chair.

We then went to check out Liberty the bald eagle.  James climbed up into the nest and after like he was laying eggs. 

It was wet and humid so we decided to call it a day.  Of course we had to ride the train.  The Diorama in the tunnel was exceptionally cheesy this week.

The Diorama in the tunnel was exceptionally cheesy this week.

Oh and once we got done there we went to pick up Whitney from school.  She was completely content and didn't even notice us all standing there waiting for her to come out of school.  I don't know where she was headed but she knew what she was doing.

Posted by danny at 09:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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First I want to say that this is going to take some getting used to.  It has obviously been a luxury to get the day going a little later than most.  However Whitney was up early and ready to get this day started. 

Last night we got her book bag ready and her clothes picked out.  She was smiles all morning until right before the teachers made us leave. 

Mommy put braids in her hair and she was sporting her new purple top with pink camo back pack.

Whitney was very excited and looked like she was going to POP!

Her pink back pack was giant and she kept asking if it was so big it covered her rear. 

James was a little disappointed he wasn't going to school but is excited about going to the zoo today.

Mr Wade came outside and wished Whitney good luck.  Once we got in the car you could tell the excitement was building even more!

When we got to school we arrived at the same time Brandon and his daddy got there.  Brandon is a classmate from Bethany and will be in the same class.

When we got to the crosswalk we must have lost our minds because the crossing guard snapped at us for crossing without her permission. 

Brandon was super excited too!

Shortly after we got scolded Lauren arrived too.  She is anotehr Bethany classmate that will be in the same class.  I made them all stop and let me take their pictures in front of the school and in front of the school door.

We were a little early and the class was not opened yet. 

We found Whitney's locker and checked to see if the giant back pack would fit. 

Ms. Wilson arrived and the kids ran up to give her big hugs.  This was pretty cool and you could tell everyone was pleased to see that.

When we entered the class we had a list of assignments.  The parents and children needed to sort all their supplies and get settled in their seats. 

This is some serious concentration. 

Everything was going good until Whitney realized we were not going to be hanging out much longer. 

This is called the long face.  And boy let me tell you it was LONG.  The tears started when we got ready to leave.  Knowing Whitney, I let mommy deal with this since I can be a real sucker in these situations. 

So out the door we went.  3:00 couldn't come sooner.  We will update everyone later.

Posted by danny at 09:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Whitney's class had their end of year party at the famous Willow Pool on Saturday evening.  There is nothing really super about the pool but everyone had a great time.  

My favorite part of the whole deal was seeing all the kids in their goggles.  They are just too funny.  I think I might start making every kid that comes to the studio get at least one photo done with goggles on. 

Molly is sporting the Speedo Dolphin Model.

Alex is 100% serious with the dark tint goggles.  I have looked and looked for the Speedo model that come with the logo upside down.  If anyone knows where to get them please pass that info on to me.

I think Ethan is Right Eye Dominant.  Either that or he really likes to keep that peripheral vision in tack on his left side.

Whitney likes her goggles like she likes her parties.  BIG!

Kara was super brave and jumped off the big diving board.  I still can't get over her just leaping right off and into the deep end. 

And Point and Shoot cameras are not made for fast action shots.  Thus the reason you never see anyone on the sidelines with one.

The party was catered by James Coney Island and the kids had little photo albums made for each other.

We had a great time and will miss all our friends and teachers. 

Posted by danny at 10:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So tomorrow is the big day for Whitney but the other big fun is that James is out of school until September 4th.  Whitney is not too happy about it but she will forget it all soon enough tomorrow morning. 

James has been out of school since last Thursday.  Denise took him Friday to Noah Ark at the First United Methodist church on Westpark.  This is a really cool pool that is built just for kids like James.  Everything is soft and the pool is only 6 or 8 inches deep.  Jame and mommy had a big time.  Denise has been working on her composition lately so I picked a few of my favorite images from the day. 

This is the pool.  It has water shooting out everywhere.  There are a couple other slides around the other side but this is the main deal.  That is James walking around by the base of the mushroom.

The water is super shallow and everything is like a padded pillow.

James likes splashing around under the mushroom.  Its super loud!

On the back side of the Ark there is a rope ladder to the slide. 

Some of James' classmates joined them on Friday as well.  This is one of the twins in his class.  They are super cool little girls and always wave and smile when they see you.

The kids climb through the ark and come out a slide on the other side. 

There is another smaller slide but apparently it is much faster than the big slide.

James had a big time with his buddies Baboo Caroline and Catherine. 

Posted by danny at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

They were all born on August 24th.  I know I know, you were probably thinking they are all three fashion conscious people but that wasn't it. 

Today is my uncle Jimmy's birthday. 

Below is a photo taken at the ranch last Easter with one of the coolest dogs on the planet Webster. 

Jimmy is the youngest of 6. 

He is now 53 and according to my son James "older than sand like Pa'Pa' "

Posted by danny at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Today was "Meet The Teacher" day at Robert Elementary.  It was also the first time Whitney visited the school.  School starts Monday and there is quite a buzz around the Clark house.  We are very excited that Whitney is going to be attending Roberts.  It is a magnet school for the arts, our first pick for her school, and it is just a couple blocks from my studio. 

We had to navigate quite a distance from the school to find a place to park.  This is just the way things are in the village area but it was fun watching Whitney anticipate the visit while we drove around the school.

Whitney's Kindergarten teacher is Ms. Wilson.  Many parents and friends have told us that she is a great teacher.  I am sure they are all great teachers but we are happy to have one of the school favorites.  Whitney was introduced to her class and as you can see was beaming from the excitement. 

We checked out the classroom and found lots of really cool stuff.  Whitney loved all the "big kid" books and is excited about learning to read!

After we were done in the classroom we took a little tour of the rest of the school.  The princess is also super excited she is going to have her very own locker! 

We went to the dance class and Whitney was about to hit the floor.  Ms. Lane, the dance instructor was super cool.  She spotted Whitney as a dancer right off and wanted to make sure she signed up for her class.  The school has an extended day program where she can take ballet lessons, drill team, music, arts etc.  Whitney wants to do ballet now that she saw the room and met Ms. Lane.

Next door to Ms. Lanes class is Mr. T's class.  Mr. T is the P.E. instructor.  It is actually Mr. Thielke but he wants everyone to call him Mr. T. 

His classroom was super cool with the biggest rock climbing wall I have ever seen. Whitney and Lauren are going to be in the same class together.  They have been in the same class at Bethany so we are excited she is going to have a familiar face in the school.

At the front door of the school they have this huge cow that is painted.  The cows are from the Cow Parade in Houston.  One day we may go around town and get a picture with each one.  I guess we got the cow inside Roberts covered.

Whitney loved the cow and they have another one in the front yard.  The cool thing is that they plant wild flowers around the cow outside so every year it looks like the grounds keepers have missed a spot when mowing.

We finally had to make our way back to the studio but you could tell Whitney was super excited.  It made it easier on us knowing she was excited. 

Recently during Whitney's preK graduation Pastor Dan told a story about his daughter going off to Kindergarten.  He said he had anticipated his daughter not letting go of his hand as they got to her class.  He also had a plan for when she would begin to tear up and not want him to leave.  However when the time came, he found he was the one that couldn't let go of his little girls hand and his allergies were so bad his eyes wouldn't stop watering. 

I'm sure Monday at 8:00 won't be easy for me or Denise but we are so excited Whitney is going to a really great school.  It seems like it was just yesterday that we got home from the hospital with our little chunky monkey.  And now she is headed off to school with her own little locker, class, and cool ideas.

Oh and one more thing.  Denise and I have taken the week off to hang out with James and make sure Whitney's first week goes smoothly.  Today was James' last day of school so he and mommy are headed to Noak's Ark  tomorrow for a little pool party!  He is out of school until September 4th so we will have plenty of time to chill with the little guy. 

Posted by danny at 08:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A few days after I shot some film outside at the house I decided to try a little out in the studio.  Having a controlled lighting environment usually ends up with pretty good results.  Unfortunately the technician that was scanning my negatives was busy eating powdered donuts while working.  I can only assume this due to the number of large white specks on the scans. 

My lovely subjects were Whitney and her buddy Kara.  Kara and her family had portraits done a week earlier and came by the studio to review their images.  Sometimes this can take a long time so while Denise is busy with the parents I get to entertain the kids. 

Kara and Whitney were in the same class at Bethany United Methodist for the last few years.  They are pretty close and recently have split up to go to different schools.  Hopefully we will continue to see Kara and her family.

These girls sometimes can't stop giggling.  Whitney is a real ham and loves to make everyone around her smile.  They were both a little over loaded with candy when we took these pictures. 

Have a great year at your new school Kara!  We are going to miss you!

Posted by danny at 08:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I had a hankering for nostalgia and shot a couple rolls of film a few weeks back.  Notice I said "a few weeks back"  this is because in our fast paced world it takes almost a month to get a couple rolls developed and scanned.  Also if you ever thought that getting a good scan was easy its not.  The images looked great and had that cool saturation that black and white film has.  The scans on the other hand were a little flat with a lot of grain.  It made for some cool effects but I could have shot this in digital, used a photoshop action and bought the family dinner.

I shot all these with a digital wide angle lens so it has this tunnel effect with a large vignette that I thought was rather cool. 

This is Milo.  He is the oldest child in our house.  This is the look on his face when we read to him about Micheal Vick.  He was very annoyed...

Santa Clause brought James a set of drums last year for Christmas.  These are very popular with my brother Stephen.  Apparently he doesn't realize he is much too large for the set. 

James and Stuart played football outside.  I love this little pout look he has right before he takes a swing at you. 

Stuart has been working out for the ladies this summer. 

Napoleon Dynamite is one of our favorite movies.  Dan is very talented at tetherball.  He too is better at itthan James and makes sure that we all know this. 

If you have been following along lately I mentioned James bites his lower lip like his Pa'Pa'.  Notice the teeth digging into Dan's lower lip as he attempts to hit the photographer with the ball.  Very talented there Dan.

Posted by danny at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

You never know how people will get to your blog.  I review my statistics on an almost daily basis.  Sometimes people get to my blog from strange searches about a book, or a location in Houston.  Other times they are looking for something specific about our studio and get to the blog. 

You just never know how they get to your blog.  However the site wefeelfine.org is a two year project where an interface goes out and grabs information form a blog where the entry has the term "I feel" or I am feeling" and places them in a database.  This is done every few minutes.  The cool part is that there is an interface that can be a little confusing but you are able to randomly ready the sentence that the phrase was mentioned and go to the actual blog. 

Ironically my first click on the feeling was of a student at the University of Houston.  A little creepy since the millions of links I could have selected ended up being a kid just down the street from us.

Enjoy yet another fantastic waste of time on the Internet.  I feel great!

Posted by danny at 08:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

BibliOdyssey is a collection of illustration found in rare books.  Paul K. (an anonymous name) has created this blog which catalogs some really strange and detailed illustrations.  I read about this blog in one of my journals and cannot stop browsing the entries.   If you can't sleep and need something entertaining this is definitely the sight. 

http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/

Hope you enjoy.

Posted by danny at 08:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today was Whitney's birthday party at the ever popular Pump It Up Party Room!  Whitney, Lexie and Molly all celebrated their birthday together.  It was a lot of fun and we saw a lot of old friends stop by.  If you want to see a slide show of the party click here.  The file is large so watch out!

Leslie and Daphne came by after their long vacation at Yellowstone National Park. 

James was having so much fun I thought he was going to bite his lower lip off.  He looks a lot like Pa'Pa' when he is dancing. 

Tracie, Brent, Christian and Jack all came up from Friendswood to take part in the festivities.  Brent and Jack went down the slide full throttle!

Whitney was playing so hard she ripped her thumb nail off.  Once the whole thing came off everything was better.  She can be tough when the party is hoppin.

Apparently a few of the party goers were not as amused with the activities.  This is Coach Todd's youngest daughter.  Todd is coaching the greatest girls soccer team in the world.  They are proudly sponsored by Danny Clark Photography!

Here is an image of Coach Todd hysterical with laughter from all the fun!.

As always we had to have a Barbie Cake.  This was one tasty cake.  And all the guys thought it was cool Whitney , Lexie and Molly had a party cake with a girl in it.

Finn and Sayer came by and partied with us too.  Finn and James had cup cakes but Sayer wanted the cake with the chick in it. 

After a little singing the girls had their cake, packed it up and headed home.  It was a fun evening but we are all happy it is over.  Next up.  James turns three September 7th!

Oh and the coolest thing about the next image is that there are three girls sitting on a blow up plastic chair with fire in their hands.  Oh and Lexies shoes are on the wrong feet too.

Posted by danny at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Posted by danny at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last night was the big night for High School Musical.   If you don't know about this summer smash hit than your lucky.  I am just happy that there will be new songs to hear now that there are 2 High School Musicals.  Apparently having just one wasn't enough. 

We setup the big screen tv (This is a sheet on the wall with a projector attached to the TV) and enjoyed the show. Our buddy Farrah, her husband Steven and their two boys Finn and Sayer came by for some pizza and a little movie. We all stayed up way too late. Around 10:00 I grabbed the little point and shoot and got Mr. Finn to show us how he can yell. And boy can this boy yell. You would never know that a little guy this sweet could bellow out so much. Both Finn and Sayer are a couple real cool cats that we just love to see come over and play. 

Click on the picture to get a little sample of Finn's talents!

Posted by danny at 07:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

So I recently have started using a new tool that makes on camera lighting a little softer.  The tool is a diffuser by Gary Fong.  The intent of this diffuser is to broaden the light and wrap it around the subject.  I was a little skeptical at first but went ahead and bought one. 

A few days later my new toy came in and I took tests of the kids.  The diffuser works well and I am excited to use it at my next wedding event.    We will probably use it more on our Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep sessions.  These sessions are almost always in low to mixed light and a tool like this can really make things work better. 

For my test I had the kids bring out Hungry Hungry Hippos. 

 It is an old time favorite but James tends to get a little over competitive.  He told me he was going to whoop up on me.  He said "I'm gonna whoop you daddy!"  Little did he know I have been banned from playing Hungry Hungry Hippos in 5 different counties.  We call it Triple-H down at the club...

 James was busy getting his game face on. 

I was marked the yellow hippo Harry.

James decided he was going to be two hippos.  Henry and Homer.

 And of course Whitney was the pink hippo Happy.

The competition was rather heated and I had a little trouble laying on the floor, holding my camera and hitting the hippo tail.  

After the first round the kids counted out their balls to see who was the winner. 

After the first round I took the lead.  Apparently James doesn't think anyone else should so he was rather upset.  I know he is only three but this is Hungry Hungry Hippos we are talking about.  No rest for the weak.  If he wants to run with big dogs he can't pee like a puppy... 

James finally decided that crying about it wasn't going to work so he did just like his uncles and started to cheat.  He reached over to my pile and grabbed all my balls. 

James looked me in the eye and said HE was the winner.  Shortly after that he kicked me in the face, looked at me with shock and then grabbed my neck and said he loved me.  He is growing up to be a real Clark boy that's for sure. 

Posted by danny at 05:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

After a few scary moments and a lot of restores to the blog I was able to get the comments section working again.

Play Nice!

Posted by danny at 10:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This afternoon we had five kids from Lamar High School come by for a portrait party.  These are a lot of fun because we get to hang out with five kids that truly like being together.  Sometimes the kids are a little quiet or unsure of what we are doing.  Eventually they warm up and relax.  This gang of kids had a tough time at first but after this group shot they loosened up.

Just imagine how different all their lives will be in about 6 months.  I am NOT looking forward to my little ones growing up!

Posted by danny at 07:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I wish Denise would have let me correograph this for our wedding reception.  That would have totally set it off.

Posted by danny at 08:37 PM | Permalink

Tonight after we celebrated Whitney's birthday we headed out for National Night Out.  There are designated houses throughout the neighborhood that provide drinks, snacks and a gathering place to visit with neighbors.  We tooled around the hood for a little bit and enjoyed the sweltering humidity...

James rides his little tricycle like its a chopper.  Here he is displaying a little attitude.  Lets just hope that in 20 years he is not striking this pose in front of an ice house intimidating the locals. Click on the image to watch this guy in action. 

Whitney was all smiles with the new skates.  Right after this photo was taken she quickly introduced her rear end to the concrete.

Whitney quickly realized that she can do much better tricks on her skates when she is standing in the grass.  She also felt a little more daring with a helmet.

We stopped by the Rose's house to show everybody the new skates.  Mr. Bill gave the kids bags of Cheetos to keep them busy while he sprayed the yard for Mosquitoes. 

After a long walk we headed home and went straight to the bath.  It was a fun day for everyone.

Posted by danny at 02:45 AM | Permalink

When we got home the kids were hungry and tired.  Denise made dinner while we decorated Whitney's cake.  She was excited because the cake had sprinkles and stars for candles. 

The little Canon camera has this cool little Super Macro setting.  I gave it a try and took a few of the ever so famous sprinkles.

In our house we have a need to have "Too Much."  This is a phenomenon my buddy Bill discovered with his three kids.  Apparently his kids decided that if you were offered "Too Much" that was a good thing.  It comes from those times when you have to tell your kids , "No you don't need more you have already had too much."  So by offering up "Too Much" but giving "Just Enough" you end up with a happy family. 

Unfortunately though sometimes we really have "Too Much."  The end results looks a lot like this:

Somebody got a little too hot, a little too thirsty, and a little too deep in the icing bowl.

After dinner we finally had the cake and Whitney was able to open her gifts.  She got a brand new pair of Dora skates.  Good thing tonight was National night out.   She was ready to ride but had to talk on the phone for a little bit first.  Girls!

Posted by danny at 02:41 AM | Permalink

Later this afternoon I picked the kids up early from school and took them to the Houston Museum of Natural Science.  This is one of our favorite places to hang out during the weekday afternoons.  James was very upset the last time Whitney and I went so we promised to take him today.  He was so excited about going I thought I was going to wet MY pants. 

I guess due to the 109 degree heat index half of the city was utilizing the A/C of the museum as well.  We had to park at the top of the parking garage due to the crowd.  Its funny how just going to the top of a garage is an adventure to a couple of little kids. 

The big attraction for the kids is the Cockrell Butterfly Center.  Before you enter the butterfly center they give you a map of the different butterflies in the building.  James was trying to decide which butterfly he was going to catch.  Unfortunately I had to take this from him when he decided to use it as a weapon on the first butterflies he saw.  

You start at the top of the center and work your way down. From the bottom the view is quite spectacular. 

On the second level there is a meandering path that takes you all over the center.  There were a couple of ladies that let the kids feel a butterfly.  Whitney enjoyed showing James how you handle a dead butterfly. 

Of course Daddy was busy trying to figure out the little Canon S5.  This camera has a nice little zoom that came in handy here at the museum.  The butterfly eating on a mango was about 10 feet away off the walking path. 

We thought this plant had some really cool colors.  It was a bright purple with dark green leafs.  Unfortunately the web only allows certain number of colors so the photo is not as vibrant as the camera image. 

At the base and lower level of the center there is a lagoon area.  The waterfall at the top spills into the lagoon where you actually exit.  It is pretty neat to go in the caves and watch the water.  Whitney was super sweet to make sure her little brother didn't' fall into the water.  She knows how to swim now so she is ready FOR ANYTHING!

Once we went back into the main museum we were greeted by students holding a bunch of bugs for the kids to touch.  Neither Whitney or James wanted anything to do with the bugs but they did like looking at them.  Whitney said , "Just take a picture Daddy." and so I obliged.

We found the biggest mosquito in the world!  The kids couldn't stop looking at it.  I had to reassure them that the mosquitoes in our backyard won't ever get this big. 

After we were done with the museum we ran over to the Houston Zoo to ride the train.  The kids love the train but the heat was enough to make even James buckle.  I thought he was going to lose his goldfish but we made it without any trouble.

After that we headed home to decorate Whitney's birthday cake.  Whitney received a call from her god father and they chatted it up almost the whole way home.  Its funny to hear her on the phone with other people.  I hear "WHAT!" a lot.

Posted by danny at 02:41 AM | Permalink

This morning Whitney woke up bright and early ready to celebrate her birthday.  The first thing she told us this morning was that she really DID feel different.  And then walked around the house pointing out all the things she can see do because she is taller now.  We didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise so we went along with the game. 

I was supposed to bring cup cakes to her class and they told me I needed to do this at 10:00 AM.  I guess morning cake is better than no cake so I hooked it over to the school at 10 and had cake, hats and camera in hand.  

Whitney's friends made her a birthday crown and everyone signed their names.  She was on cloud nine the whole time. 

Whitney was required to serve her friends cup cakes.  She was such a delightful host at her own party.  I was a very proud daddy.  These kids had just spent an hour in chapel so they were ready to party!

Once the cup cakes were polished off and the tables were cleaned we gathered for a group shot.  The class has dwindled somewhat due to schools about to start.  A lot of these little ones have been together for almost 4 years so its going to be sad to see them separate. 

Posted by danny at 02:41 AM | Permalink

Well we finalized the ad for the Pet Portrait event.  We have already had quite a response and are considering opening it up for another weekend some time late December.  The ad will run in the September issue of Pet Talk Magazine.  The event will be held at The Hollywood Frame Gallery.

Posted by danny at 12:51 AM | Permalink

This afternoon James and I played with the Canon camera again.  I wanted him to show me how he could skate.  Another cool thing about this camera is the way you can get a really low angle.  Because of the little flip screen you can practically lay the camera on the ground and still compose the image. 

 This little feature makes photographing kids playing a lot of fun.  Below are a few images and a little slide show. 

Posted by danny at 09:24 PM | Permalink

The first weekend in October we are doing pet portraits at our good friend Ricky and Kathleen's shop The Hollywood Frame Gallery .  For the event Kathleen wanted us to do a full page ad in a local pet magazine.  So we started looking around for a "pet model" that would be good for the advertisement.  Denise found Linus, the 2 month old miniature daschund who's grandmother lives down the street from us.  Denise asked if they would let us borrow Linus for a full page ad and they were excited. 

Linus was so kind to grace us with his presence today.  He was an energetic little dog that really enjoyed playing with my camera. 

I had a great time playing with this little guy.  He finally was worn out and we called it a day.  The good thing was there were no accidents and everything was back to normal relatively quickly.  Its times like this that I get a real kick out of what I do. 

Posted by danny at 03:37 AM | Permalink