Days like today help me keep perspective
Days like today remind me how trivial my problems are
Days like today make me hug my son a little tighter.

This morning I photographed a day old newborn at UW Children’s NICU. Baby Owen (pictured above) is delicately clinging to this world. Please say a prayer for him and his family during this very difficult time.

This evening I photographed a 32 week old preemie come into this world. Baby Alex needs some assistance with breathing but he will be going home with his parents in a few weeks or months.

life is so precious , life is  fragile. Hold your children close.

from left to right: 1)Choice Organic Mango Ceylon Tea (a Seattle company!), 2)Stash Pomegranate raspberry green tea, 3) traditional Medicines Just for kids Organic Nighty Night linden, chamomile, and hibiscus tea (this one is what Simon drinks), 4) Tazo Berryblossom White tea (blueberry and white cranberry).

I heard about this ice tea method on the Splendid Table and I just had to try it for myself. I am a BIG tea fan (at any given time I have upwards of 60 different verities of tea on hand) and I drink hot tea all the time (even in the summer) but sometimes you just want a cold drink.  Growing up my mom made iced tea all the time. The standard Lipton – a huge pot of boiling water, 5 tea bags, 1/3 cup of sugar and then top the rest of the pitcher off with cold water and chill.  It doesn’t get more basic then that… actually it does.  You don’t even need to use hot water to make tea.  All you need is 2 teaspoons of tea per quart of water (or about 2 tea bags if you are not using loose tea), put the water and tea in some sort of container and refrigerate overnight. In the morning you have great cold brew iced tea. Yes, it really works. I know a lot of people are familiar with sun tea, where you let the tea bags sit in water out in the sun all day. The sun tea method is a great way to grow lots of bacteria (can you say Petri dish). Really, you don’t need the sun you just need time.  I have always been in the mindset that to make iced tea you need to make a huge pitcher of it. For me the best part about this method is that it has totally freed me from this mentality. I can make a quart or 2 of whatever flavor I feel like  – I don’t have to make a huge pitcher.  I just throw a couple tea bags in a quart mason jar with some water.

Also did you know that it’s actually possible to scald the tealeaves when you make tea by using water that is too hot? Green teas and white teas are especial susceptible to being scalded and should actually be brewed at lower temperatures than black or oolong teas. Have you ever thought that a green or white tea tasted terribly sharp and harsh? Most likely the tea was scalded when being brewed. The cold brew method is perfect for these more fragile teas. The flavor comes out amazing – so smooth and sweet. It also brings out a lot more of the fruit tones in the tea.

And what about sweetener?
Obviously it’s a lot harder to dissolve sugar into cold tea so what if you want to use the cold brew method but have sweet tea?
Honestly I try to avoid drinking too many of my calories but if you want sweet tea I highly recommend you try agave syrup. A sweetener made from the agave plant. Incidentally the same plant used to make tequila. It’s a syrup and dissolves pretty much instantly into liquids.  It’s also very low on the glycemic index (it’s a 27 and standard table sugar is 92) which means that it doesn’t give you that sugar rush that typical Sucrose or High Fructose Corn Syrup gives you. The light or raw varieties of agave also have a very mild neutral flavor and is perfect for sweetening tea. Thank you Chanda for introducing me to agave syrup. You can purchase it as most health food stores as well as Trader Joe’s.

And for those of you who still want to make hot tea here are the ideal steeping temperatures for the 4 main varieties.

White: 185-195°F
Green: 165-185°F
Oolong: 212°F
Black: 212°F

Enjoy!

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to study with the two most acclaimed baby photographers working today. Brittany Woodall and Carrie Sandoval. I learned some awesome tips on working with and posing newborns as well as received constructive criticism on how to take my art to the next level. Here are some of the images from the workshop.

Who would have thought that there were so many zoo sex stories out there… This whole thing turned a little raunchier than I expected but entertaining none the less.
Myles wants me to say that he thought the entire subject was crass and inappropriate however we both agreed on the winner. We both laughed the hardest at the Hippo diarrhea story.  Maybe because I can imagine it like a cartoon where the poo is literally shooting out. So our Zoo story winner is !
Patty Harris
Patty please email me with your address so I can send you your prize.

I also really liked Jewels story about the eagle that flew into the lions cage and was eaten. If you have known me for a long time then you know that I have this real interest in watching a larger predator get a “live feed”,  so this story was really appealing to me.  I don’t know why this kind of stuff can’t happen while I am at the zoo…
But since Jewels didn’t actually whiteness the event I didn’t think it was fair to award her the prize.

Thanks everyone for participating and the good laughs.

So did you guys like the reader participation aspect and should I do it again?

We discovered tonight that our boysenberry bushes are loaded down with berries.  It looks like a record harvest. So many were so ripe that they just fell off the vines into your hands. Simon was eating them as fast as we could pick them. Man I love that kid!

So I promised some zoo photos and here they are.

This is our newest zoo exhibit, the Humboldt penguin exhibit. It opened up earlier this summer. It’s pretty cool that they have these neat viewing areas. The penguins zoom by the windows all the time – of course I have never been able to catch Simon looking through the window and a penguin swimming by at the same time. When this exhibit opened I took Simon down and he quickly learned the sing for penguin which is waddling like a penguin. It’s pretty funny because he spent the entire time at the exhibit waddling around. Here he is with pals Ivy and Sevilla.

My favorite is the Gorilla exhibit. They are in a huge enclosure but it is surrounded by glass so you can really get a good look at them. The woodland park zoo was one of the first zoos in the US to pioneer these more natural environments for animals back in the 1970s. This gorilla enclosure was one of a kind when it was first built and it’s still world class.  Don’t you love that the Gorilla on the left is doing the perfect newborn pose : )

This is Simon and Ivy watching a mommy gorilla nurse her baby. (The baby is extremely adorable). Simon and Ivy are thinking “Hey, that looks familiar!”

This is the Sumatran Tiger.  He was looking at all the babies and thinking “Lunch?”

And finally the highlight of the day… flamingo sex. Actually, it was more like flamingo rape. Right as we were walking up to the exhibit this male flamingo casually stepped upon top of a female who was minding her own business eating her lunch. What happen next was a big flurry of feathers and a lot of wing flapping. I had my camera around my neck and without even checking my settings I fired of a few shots.

This has never happened to me before at the zoo – I have never seen any other animal copulate…

And that beings me to today’s discussion topic. What is the strangest or most interesting thing you have ever seen at a zoo? Leave your answers as a comment bellow and the “best” one wins a Starbucks gift card.  “Best” will be at my digression but if I have a hard time narrowing it down I will consult Myles.

Here is Simon watching the flamingo’s through the glass railing. The funny thing is that he always notices the wild ducks that have moved into their pond. Here are these exotic birds and my kid is standing there going “duck, duck, quack quack”

I am always very jealous of these perfectly round cute little bellies! I was never this cute while pregnant. As you can see this mommy to be has a great sense of humor! She says she really has been craving ice cream a lot lately.

I can’t wait to photograph this little one once he or she arrives!

They look like the perfect matched sibling set but actually they are cousins. We met last Thursday down at the beach not taking into account that it was a holiday weekend and 85 degrees and that everyone and their dog (literally) would be at the beach. On top of that there was a wedding reception going on too. But we managed the crowds and were able to get some really great family shots.

Such well behaved and polite children too!

It is so exciting to get back to the beach after kind of a dreary spring. Summer doesn’t really start in Seattle until July – and I love working at the beach but it is really only a 3 month window where is is warm enough.

Take care H, Z, K, and B – it was a blast working with you!

This is what happened when you let your toddler go to be with a purple marker. And lest you think I am totally crazy – I honestly didn’t think he could get the cap off by himself. Purple is his favorite color. I honestly didn’t think that one year olds had favorite colors but Simon does.  If you give him multiple colors of markers he always chooses purple and he will color with it more than any of the others. It’s also the only color that he can say – well sort of he says “purp” (he can sign “red”) but those are the only 2 colors that he will mention.

Note the bed and wall in the lower right hand quarter of the photo.

This is his sweet innocent “who me?” face.

This is what the wall and crib look like. The sheets were pretty bad too.

This is what happens when you take markers away from. I think we have entered the “terrible twos” and he isn’t even 18 months old yet. This kid loves markers or “colors” as he calls them. This obsession started with ink pens or “p” as he calls  them. Our futon has already sustained some pen damage from a pen he found who knows where and so I needed to find something that would be ok for him to color with. Why would I give my 1-year-old markers?  I looked for crayons but couldn’t find any suitable. Now I know a lot of my good friends think I am a little nuts with all the BPA free, phthalate free, PCV free stuff but I found out something really unfortunate about crayons that makes me never want to give them to my toddler who still puts everything in his mouth. If you want to remain in blissful ignorance stop reading here.

Crayons are made with tallow – which is made from rendered animal carcases. These animal carcases that are used to make tallow come for all sorts of places including road kill and animal shelters. So if you have you dog or cat euthanized and you don’t have them cremated and you don’t take the body home then your dog or cat ends up as tallow. And that tallow is used in everything including pet food, fabric softener, lip gloss, soap, crayons, etc. (if it says tallow or tallowate in the ingredient list you can count on it) Now we are not vegan or even vegetarian but the thought of washing my clothes with someones pet or washing my face with “Fluffy” is absolutely revolting to me. So now I cringe whenever I see a toddler putting crayons in his or her mouth especially considering that the animal carcases contain euthanasia drugs.  I know all of this sounds a lot like Sinclair’s “The Jungle” but I am not making this up. If you don’t believe me do a little research and listen to episode 51 of This American life. I am on the look out for vegan crayons (if you have a source please let me know) but for the time being Simon is coloring with markers and I try to keep him from writing on his skin or putting them in his mouth (because who knows what that pigment is made from). For now we have a new rule – “colors” are only allowed at the table.

I love it when kids are super gregarious and out going. Little miss Gillian warmed up to me in no time. Yes, I have photographed her before but it was a year ago and I don’t think there is anyway she could still remember that. Last time we met she was just barley taking steps – now you can hardly keep her in one place. I love the shot of mom chasing her it very much sums up this age {fast}.

Thanks S family for a great session. You guys are a super cute family!

-Emily