Gapers Block – Rearview – July 24th
Little did I realize, but the same day the photo "Sales" was featured on the Chicago Public Radio web page, it was also featured on the Gapers Block site.
http://gapersblock.com/rearview/archives/2007/07/24/
Thanks, GB, for the selection.
Comfort not
As 
helloheather has pointed out, Nate is having a very difficult time sleeping. And while she is up with him every hour or so, I generally wake up and then go back to sleep. Sometimes I will get up before her and try and comfort him but, with one exception, he rejects this and becomes more and more distraught.
I wish I understood why he was having so much difficulty staying asleep. I know that, right now, part of the problem is teething. He's getting at least two molars and a possible third tooth in at the same time. That cannot be fun.
And if his not sleeping were not enough, Nate still rejects almost all foods with textures. He simply will not tolerate anything but puréed "Stage 3" style foods. And perhaps we are sending the wrong messages, for when he has tried "chunks" of even easy to chew foods, not only has he coughed but has gagged and choked. This has caused us to whip him out of his chair to try and help him clear the object out. I wonder if such a reaction on our part is causing him to reject these foods outright. But what can be done? I cannot simply stand by while my child, with a panicked look on his face, gags.
Both behaviors are very stressful to me, though I believe the food-aversion will resolve itself over time. But the sleep problems, given that he has /never/ slept more than a few hours at a time since his birth, seem insurmountable. Nothing we have tried has helped in the least.
I look at the up-coming family camp out and the trip to Denver with much trepidation.
Chicago Public Radio – July 24th
This particular shot, for me, is a good example of pre-visualization with a bit of luck.
When I saw the empty containers stacked like this on the table, I knew I wanted a macro shot, with the background slightly out of focus (as much as can be with a digital point and shoot) and with the low-angle, just like you see. The women were in the frame, talking to the child selling fruit and I took the shot. But, because it's digital, and I wasn't sure of the composition, I adjusted very slightly and took another. Knowing the second shot was not as good as the first, I took a third. This all happened within a span of 7 seconds.
It's that third shot that you see here: a completed transaction and both women smiling. It was pure luck that I happened to catch them smiling at the same time. A lot of photographers will discount the value and importance of luck, believing that only those that control everything in the scene are true photographers. (These people are very full of themselves.) Luck (or whatever you want to call it) is an important part of how people make photographs. Yes, you can (and do) become instinctual about certain situations (especially those that are street photographers [which I'm not]) but luck still has a roll in the process.
I am very happy with how the shot turned out, and I was delighted to find that WBEZ had chosen this photo for their photo of the day today. Normally they send an email or notification via Flickr but today was a surprise.
See the larger version at my photoblog: http://cetan.org/index.php?showimage=363
30,000
Our first digital camera was a Canon A80. It took its first photograph on December 1, 2003 and by December 1, 2004 it had taken 9,544 more. To say we have enjoyed using this camera would be an understatement.
Today marks the 30,000th exposure captured with this camera. In a time of increasingly disposable digital point and shoots, this is no small feat.
30,000
Certainly nothing to write home about but at least it wasn't something horrid. 
Nathan photos – April 2007
Slowly catching up on uploads to our gallery. Here are photos from April 2007
Nathan at One
Nathan is now one year old. Despite my brains best efforts to sabotage the whole works, he's turned out to be a wonderful child. He is so friendly and happy; he's so very interested in the outside world. He loves sticks and bugs and the dirt. And yet he also loves baths and showers.
July 2007
How did this happen? All my nervousness and anxiety seems to slide off of him. It's like he's coated with anti-crazy-daddy Teflon (tm).
He used to be so very small. So tiny in my arms. I remember walking back and forth with him in the hallway thinking "wow, this is hard work, carrying this 8 lbs around." I'd /love/ to carry around only 8 lbs of baby these days
He turns pages of books with ease, points to a thing and makes a noise (wanting us to tell him what it is over and over again), eating more and more foods every week, chasing the cat, and yes growing and growing. It's just mind-boggling sometimes to think of how different he is from even two months ago, let alone a year ago.
July 2007
Before Nathan was born, I was filled with arrogance and ignorance of what being a parent would be like. Here, a year later, I can say I'm now only ignorant. I have been (at least, I hope I've been) humbled by my son. So, if I ever foisted my pre-parental arrogance upon you, I truly apologize.
Nathan continues to make a lot of progress towards independent walking. We're trying to count the number of steps he takes at each attempt (though sometimes he's so fast!) and we're up to a max of 8 or 9. His walking has been less and less "accidental" (where his distraction by an object or person has facilitated a few steps) and more by choice.
First Birthday
I'm not certain what the next year will bring, but I'm hopeful it will be as amazing as this one has been.
