The Santa Test

How do you prove Santa Claus is real? Carter and Claire came up with the solution:

Give Santa a written test with challenging questions only he can answer. Add in some math problems to challenge his skills on his busiest night.

I don't know why Santa and I bothered with the hundreds of dollars of presents. When C+C were finally allowed to come into the living room for Christmas morning, their foremost interest was in Santa's responses on The Test, and the cookie and carrot crumbs on the porch from the snack we left.

They must have spent 10 minutes carefully analyzing every response on their test papers. Then they traded papers to read more. Claire was tickled Santa used the "math help box" to show his work on the addition problem.

Their smiles about this magical part of Christmas were fantastic. I'm so glad for the believers in my family.

Gingerbread Factory 2013

The scene around my kitchen table last night, fueled by eggnog and Vince Guaraldi's A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack. I use a recipe from Martha Stewart called Patti Paige's Gingerbread Cookies ... without the cloves.

When I get tired of rolling dough, the last of the edge trimmings get squished into their own special reject cookie. It's the prize of the batch. Can you spot it?

That glue bottle is actually full of icing, it lets you control where it goes. Any icing mess-ups go into the reject pile ... in my stomach.

All gingerbread is now bundled and ready for giving. You so wish I was your home teacher.

Photo Booth Setup: Seeing Stars

I love the problem-solving aspect of photography. When everything comes together you can knock the ball out of the park.

Earlier this month for our church Christmas party I set up a photo booth. I wanted something foolproof so I could enjoy the party ... of course it ended up being one of my most elaborate setups. But it was a hit and the photos were amazing!

Here's how I did it.

I knew I wanted a fancy background for Christmas. I used a large craft paper punch in black card stock (courtesy photo buddy Sharon) to create a star-shaped stencil to tape over my camera lens as the aperture. For the background I covered a rolling chalkboard with black fabric and Christmas lights. If I blurred out the lights in the background they would become a field of stars.


The challenge: The lights needed to be in the distance so they’d be out of focus. The people in the foreground needed to be in the right spot — in three dimensions — or else they wouldn’t be in the photo. I didn’t realize this until I was setting everything up the night before. I needed an imaginary rectangle in space to keep everyone in my viewfinder, but had no idea how to do it. Time to think on my feet.


The solution: I suspended a discarded picture frame with two screws and old speaker wire from a bungeed rigging. All parts on hand, total cost = $0. After I figured out the proper distances and lined up the foreground, background and camera tripod, I taped guide marks on the floor in case anything got bumped out of kilter. Which it did.


Lighting came from an optically slaved Nikon SB-800 inside a shoot-through umbrella. During the shoot the side of the umbrella was just about touching the side of the lens to keep the light near center to avoid shadows from the frame.

On the other side of the camera I connected a big LCD monitor from the church library to my camera’s video output. People could get instant visual feedback after each snap to see how they needed to arrange themselves inside the frame.

I also had a wireless remote shutter release set up so people could take their own photos from inside the set, but I abandoned this. Once I saw how good the photos were turning out, I ended up directing people so we could get the best shots. We definitely got some keepers.

We had some families show up with 3, 4, and 5 kids, and I wondered how we would ever cram everybody into that small frame. We had them stand on chairs and doing some funny balancing, like a game of Twister. Perhaps watching them work together as a team to get everybody in the shot was the most fun. At top is one of the pictures I’m most proud of, it took a couple tries to get this. I love the layered feature of the set, how you can see what’s going out outside the frame.

The entire set is on Flickr. If you’d like full resolution files for your family let me know.

Gaffer

Many portrait photographers exclusively use available light. That's great, but too limiting for me.

1. Sometimes the perfect location is a dense forest or sunken waterfall where there is no light to be had.
2. What if I need to do a studio shot without a north-facing window or on a rainy day?
3. How do I shoot 70 families over three months and make them all look the same?

I make my own luck — I pack flashes. (Look, they're available right there in my bag.)

I love having the control of bringing my own light. Give me any old clunky camera: as long as I control the lights, I can make you look exquisite.

Even better: put a strobe on a pole, hand it to a friend, and now I've got a voice-activated lightstand. Time for the word of the day.

gaf·fer
n.

1. Chiefly British An old man.
2. Chiefly British A boss or foreman.
3. An electrician in charge of lighting on a movie or television set.

Adirondacks Road Trip

Madeleine had a long weekend off school from Clarkson University, way up in Potsdam, NY near the Quebec border.

The most direct path is through the Adirondack Park in New York's North Country, full of beautiful mountains and glacial lakes. It's fall up there earlier than in Albany. We couldn't have picked a more beautiful day for a road trip. With snacks.

Here's the full set of photos on Facebook.

Brown Bag

I am the king of packing lunch. I remember to add spoons for chocolate pudding cups. Cheese sticks get double bagged with ice cubes. And the kids get a note from me every time.

Carter shrugs about the notes; Claire collects them in the front pocket of her backpack like they're a limited edition. Every morning when I'm packing food she wanders into the kitchen to ask: "Did you put a note in?" I say it's a surprise — you'll have to wait and find out at school.

Just so we're clear, Claire would rather be late to school than have me forget the note.

Carrots for Soup

Yesterday I was making soup, listening to David A. Bednar talk about the subtle, easily overlooked blessings of tithing. Rats, I thought, I’m out of carrots for my soup.

The next hour I’m at the elementary school Fall Festival, where I spent the last of my cash. On our way out, there’s the supermarket dietitian handing out healthy snacks. Or should I say, ingredients.

Some of the windows of heaven must be small and round, just large enough to drop Dixie cups full of carrots.

Pet Shop Boys Electric

It was an amazing night at the Pet Shop Boys’ Electric concert in DC. This was my third time seeing them live. The duo is made up of two non-performers, so their basic premise for concerts is to stand there — one sings, the other plays keyboard — while exciting things happen around them.

The exciting things happening this time: dancers wearing horned minotaur heads, creative backdrop video, strobes blasting, fog machines, and tons of lasers.


During one song the Boys wore a bowler hat and a disco ball each covered with mirrors while spotlights beamed down on their heads and sent sparkles throughout the hall.

For Love, etc. the Boys got into upturned beds and performed with different bodies from the neck down projected onto the sheets. For Domino dancing the dancers were dressed head-to-toe in tinsel suits bouncing on pogo sticks as Neil got the crowd to sing along. Towards the end the dancers were on 4 legged stilts walking around.

The lasers were my favorite part, they made everything mesmerizing and exciting, you could watch them all night. I've never seen anything like it. Here's the setlist.


Here's a video of the closing number, Vocal from the Moscow set (they have fans and tour everywhere). Skip ahead 2/3 of the way into the video, it explains the epilepsy warning posters outside the concert hall!


The Pet Shop Boys are interesting blokes, and put a lot of thought and deliberation into what they do. So when a new record comes out it's a treat to find interviews where they talk about their work. Here's an electronic press kit video on the making of the new Electric album, insight into their work process, an interview of producer Stuart Price, along with footage from the tour.
[Not my photos above.]

Banging and Lasers

Looking forward to "banging and lasers," the Pet Shop Boys' own description of their Electric tour. Thanks to Craigslist I'm going to see their concert in DC tonight!

Nobody knows who they are, but these guys are my favorite. Why?

• They've been making records for almost 30 years straight. Not a reunion.
• They've pioneered the sound and trends that a lot of artists have followed. For instance: remixes.
• They use a lot of electronic sounds. I heart vocoder.
• They use a lot of other sounds: orchestral, choral, guitars, horns, sound effects. There's a harpsichord on their latest pop single.
• Their focus is on composition: they've scored a ballet, performed a silent movie soundtrack, written music for a solar eclipse. They nick chord changes from classical composers for their songs.
• Super-interesting tunes. Songs are just as likely to be a Russian history lesson, or a story about dictators in hell, as about love.
• Intelligent. In the lyrics of their latest album: bolshy, bourgeoisie, doss, oligarch, schadenfreude. It’s dictionary meets dancefloor.
• Prolific. Lots of non-album b-sides. Two full albums out in the last 12 months. It's great for fans.
• They're very British.

Looking forward to this special night. Is it 8:00 yet?

Love Is the Answer

Washington DC is divided into four quadrants (NE, SE, SW, NW) with the Capitol at the center.

NW is where I spend most of my time, it's where work is. This time all the hotels near work were booked up, so I'm staying in DC NE.

There are a lot of cranes and new buildings going up near the NE DC hotel I'm at this week. But you don't have to travel far from the gentrification zone to find sketchy neighborhoods. Which I did last night as I walked around looking for dinner.

Let's just say I've never been in a Subway where the sandwich makers are behind inch-thick bulletproof glass.

Smooth As a Baby’s Bum

Usually portable roadside signs bring news of solemn inconvenience. This is the first I've ever seen with an exclamation point!

Saturday night I was so happy to see this sign on a main route we've been detouring for months. I went zipping through the new road, now with two fewer traffic lights, shouting to my kids, “I love my town!!!” How often do you compliment government like that? Exclamation marks all around!

I’m not a fan of roundabouts, but Glenville installed a small traffic circle to replace a traffic light at an intersection of two one-lane roads with no right on red, and it works beautifully. Then 500 yards west they widened a narrow one-way railroad underpass and removed its traffic light, and also widened a two-way railroad underpass that was too narrow. The previous three obstacles that slowed every church trip and snarled traffic at rush hour, are now smooth sailing.

My kids exploded into laughter when I complimented the new run as “smooth as a baby’s bum.” Rest assured, I corrected myself and told them we shouldn’t really drive over babies.

Claire Turns 7

Claire turned 7 today!

This crazy kid woke me up at 5:30 this morning to ask if she could play with her presents. Thankfully, when I got up at 6:30, she had gone back to sleep.

I told Claire I would let her pick her own birthday present this year, and she wanted something called Beanie Boos. Trouble is, we couldn't find them anywhere. Finally at 9:00 last night, the fifth clerk we asked at Toys R Us knew just what they were, she had seen them at Cracker Barrel that morning at breakfast, and even had a photo on her phone. Claire confirmed the sighting and we sped off into the night.

What came of this crazy weekend dragging my kids through five stores —

1. Get a real present instead of giving money (my backup plan). I persevered, now I'm Super Dad.
2. My kids never ride in the car when it's completely night out. They thought it was freaky. I never thought about that before.
3. When it's late, I'm much funnier. In one store we saw this electronic pig that walks and oinks and plays music, rightfully 80% off at $4. My kids laughed hysterically as we plotted who we could buy this for as a gag gift.

McPherson

Statue of James Birdseye McPherson, a Union general killed in the Civil War Battle of Atlanta. This statue is in the middle of a grassy block across from my office building block in Washington, DC, called McPherson Square. The McPherson Square Metro (subway) stop under our building is also named in his honor.

Interesting fact: for a couple of years his portrait was on the back of the $2 bill.

Best Gig Ever

Happy 60th, Kurt Rakozy!

True story: Sunday Kurt asks if I’d come help with a blessing. I said sure. I mean, I’m over all the time having fun: “farm food” dinners, watching movies, stringing chicken wire in the garden, playing model trains, swimming laps at the high school every week.

As I thought about it I started feeling awkward, like, maybe they should ask their home teacher from church instead of me. It took a full 20 minutes before it hit — oh yeah, I am their home teacher. That’s the kind of gig I’ve got at the Rakozys.

Table Rock Lake

Sunset on the dock at my mom's lake house in Reeds Spring, Missouri.

On the Lighter Side

I favor shadows in my photography. I gravitate towards the solidity of the dark patches, with the purpose of leading people to brighter areas of interest. I'm a big fan of chiaroscuro.

So here's me trying something completely different. I clipped these lilacs from a beautiful bush on Route 50 this summer. Shhh, don't tell.

Dyed Roots

An askew white balance setting accidentally produces the next Enya album cover.

Taken at an eroded bank of the Indian Kill, Glenville, New York.

Take My Yoke Upon You

I believe there are no coincidences. Here's a good one from my family vacation this summer.

It felt like a bit of a miracle to see this hanging in the wainwright (wagon) shop in the historic Mormon pioneer town of Nauvoo, Illinois: an oxen yoke with the name Grandon etched across it. I didn't see any other yokes with names.

Out of 300 million people in the U.S., there are only 726 with the last name Grandon. It's always been pretty rare. So seeing the yoke in the wagon shop with my name on it was a bit astounding.

I don't know of any Mormon pioneers with that name — except for me. It's just as likely my people forced the Mormons out of Nauvoo at gunpoint in 1846, and church historians picked up the yoke at a neighboring farm a century later.


The day after we left Nauvoo I was in the Boston temple, pondering what I had seen. Does the yoke mean something? Here's the answer that came to me.

For me to see that artifact hanging on the wall, it took several hundred years to get the right people in the right places —

• the farmer named Grandon with oxen;
• the tractor-driving son or grandson who decided not to throw out the yoke when oxen went out of style;
• the picker who found the yoke in an old barn;
• the historian who put it on display;
• my family who encouraged me to meet up with them in Nauvoo;
• etc., etc., etc.

Has God done the same thing by planning and organizing the people, situations and timing that would be part of the experiences of my life? It's overwhelming to consider that he pays that kind of attention to detail, but we're told it's true.

One of the sister missionaries from the Nauvoo visitor's center called me last week, and I told her about my experience finding the yoke in the wainwright's shop. She directed me to the Bible, which duh, I hadn't thought to look in. From the Bible Dictionary —

YOKE. A device put around the necks of animals or men to harness them together. The yoke of Christ is a symbol for discipleship.

Update 9/1/2013:

I'm in awe a few days later as I crack the September Ensign and there's a two-page spread on yokes. With the same title as this blog post. Is somebody trying to tell me something?

Elder Russell M. Nelson —

“You come unto Christ to be yoked with Him and with His power, so that you’re not pulling life’s load alone. You’re pulling life’s load yoked with the Savior and Redeemer of the world, and suddenly your problems, no matter how serious they are, become lighter.”

Matthew 11:29-30 —

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Smithsonian

Summer in DC can be sweltering, but many of the museums stay open later, so I can still get there after a day at the office.

I've posted a Flickr set of some of my favorite items from three museums: the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, and the National Museum of American History.

It makes me a little crazy to hear from some of my co-workers they never go to these places. Are you kidding me?

View my Smithsonian set on Flickr.

Sixes and Eights

My brother Matt and I met up in Missouri this week with our 6- and 8-year-olds, we each live 1200 miles west and east of home in Springfield.

We took this photo today after church: Carter and Pierce are in front; Madeleine Claire, Beau and Cash are in back.

Spin Zone

My best Fourth of July photos usually aren't of fireworks, but the rides at Clifton Common park. These photos are each around 4 seconds.

Bedtime Stories

When I moved to my new apartment I started reading the Book of Mormon with my little kids from the beginning, at night before bed. We have been very regular readers, 3 nights every other week when they are here. Carter got bored reading slowly with me and Claire, so while we read out loud he would read ahead silently on his own. Even after Claire and I would finish after a few verses and stop, he would keep going, cranking out a couple chapters or more each night.

Sixteen months later, Carter has read the entire Book of Mormon, at age 8. I can quiz him on stories from the book, and he knows the answers. I'm so impressed by him — I was 19 when I finally read it the whole way through.

Carter's favorite word in the Book of Mormon: blood. As in chopping off arms blood.

Somewhere Over The Shoulder

Another photo from the May 29 storm. While the brown clouds were in the west, this is what was happening in the east. They say when you photograph, you should turn around and see if there's a better picture behind you. That's how I got the great brown clouds photo.

Brown Skies

Freaky skies over the barren Pine Bush Preserve after a wild storm that blew through Albany about 5:00 p.m. May 29, 2013. The cloud cover and rain were so intense it was like nightime during the day. I deserted my desk for a different part of my office building, I didn't feel safe sitting next to the large glass windows when the rain came pounding through. No false color in this photo, you can see some blue sky peeking through towards the horizon on the right.

Mets 10, Nationals 1

Panorama stitched from 13 vertical shots at last night's New York Mets' batting practice at the Washington Nationals baseball game. I almost bought a hat last night at the game because I figure I'll go again someday and cheer the home team. They needed all the help they could get last night.

I've never seen so many hats and shirts for the opposing team at a home game. Is there a hidden enclave of New Yorkers in DC?

Click the photo for the larger version.

Lilacs

One of my favorite things — to smell the lilacs blossom.

Four Minutes of Lightning

I have a covered upstairs balcony, perfect for taking photos when it's rainy out. During the storms Tuesday night we had some spectacular lightning, and I spent a few minutes collecting lightning shots with several 30 second exposures. Here are 8 of those photos stacked in Photoshop using the Lighter Color layer blending mode.


There was one gigantic blast at the end that I didn't include in the stack — it's so bright it blows out the dramatic skies from the rest of the frames. But it was impressive on its own, and it echoed for several seconds. Look at how it lit up the parked cars.

Two-Hour Delay

The scene this morning — heavy, wet, sticky snow that squishes when you walk on it. The 5:00 a.m. text from the school saying there's a two-hour delay tricks you into feeling you get to sleep in before the real alarm goes off. Any day that's made for pictures even after sleeping in can't be that bad.

Carousel

This week the kids are on winter recess from school, and we spent one of our afternoons at the New York State Museum. I like that we've been going regularly enough for them to remember the Cohoes mastodon and other exhibits.

Once the museum wears them out and they start laying on the floor, they regain their strength for their favorite part, several rides on the 100-year-old carousel.

Photo Op

Me demonstrating proper wedding photography technique yesterday afternoon at the Photography merit badge.

In the morning I taught the Computers merit badge — count 'em 17 Boy Scouts showed up (it's winter recess and school's out all week). With a giant grilled cheese lunch in the middle it was a totally great day off. Thanks for helping, Michelle Brimhall, Cindy Bringhurst, Andrea Smith!

Here are the two photos I'm showing them on the projector when I lay down on the floor, you decide which you like better.

How to Get Kids to Stand Still

Friday night I did a photography class with the West Glenville 4-H club, which ended up with light painting. Starting with a dark room, all light came from a $1 pack of glow sticks and two $1 flashlights from the Target bargain bin. Everybody had to hold still and make no noise for 20 seconds — I'm going to remember this trick.

Weirdest Valentine's Boomerang

This is the second Valentine's Day I've made sour cream cookies with fluffy pink frosting for the two little old ladies who live downstairs from me, along with a few lucky others (who may be identified by the fluffy pink frosting on the corners of their mouths).

Sometimes when you get your treat plates back, there's a treat on there for you. That was the case tonight ... I got a plate back with frozen sea bass. And really, what better way to say: "Your love reminds me of a cold, dead fish"?

Actually, I grew up 2,000 feet from the ocean, and I'm a big fan of seafood, so this is the perfect gift for me. Bonus points for creativity. And for giving me this story about my weirdest Valentine's Day gift ever.

Goodbye, Glasses

Tomorrow I am having laser eye surgery to correct my severe nearsightedness. It's a huge day for me. I'm excited thinking about waking up Saturday morning being able to see. This has been a dream.

Though I'm a little nervous about a surgeon searing away my eyeball flesh — don't they say never point laser beams at your eyes?

I got glasses at age 5, I was the first kid in first grade to have them. That was a traumatic year. It was a big deal when I returned to school after several weeks in a body cast after breaking my leg. And, even as the youngest in my class I was the tallest. I dislike attention in large groups, and glasses was probably the start of it all.

When I was in fifth grade, I got hard contact lenses like my dad. Once near the end of the school day I lost a lens, and I had 30 kids on the floor searching for it. My dad eventually showed up at my classroom, lifted up my eyelid, and it had slid onto the white of my eye. High-fives from all the kids that got out of schoolwork early that day.