Oh thank heaven for Thanksmas!

We got to spend a rare Saturday night celebrating Thanksmas with friends. It's the holiday between Thanksgiving and Christmas where we all gather for dinner at Jen and Mike Rivers and then pawn off our unwanted Christmas gifts from past years in a rousing gift exchange. The newest members of the gang, Greg and Carolye, above, show off their loot:) And in case you're interested, Mike operates his own investment management firm. Check out his smartly written blog here. — Sean

Ice Cream Social

Abby's best friend Kenzie came over last night and we went for ice cream at our favorite spot, the Drive-In. — Sean

Summer Rasberries

Our rasberry bush is holding forth with a bounty of juicy red berries. We're holding out and not picking them. Hopefully we will have enough to make a pie :) — Sean

Rockies 19 Brewers 4

My friend Kent Meireis invited a few of us photographers to a Rockies game last Wednesday. A lot of us had never met before and it was a nice way to connect with some other professionals. Many of the photographers are located in the Denver area. As you can see by the score, we didn't spend the whole time watching the game. Some of it was devoted to a tour of the Sandlot Brewery. Around the 7th inning we hightailed it to the stadium basement and enjoyed a wonderful brown ale. Here are the names and web sites of the photographers I met: Tracy Trulove Young of Meadow Sweet Studio, Daniel Treat of Verge Photography, Adam Welch at his website by the same name, Melissa Lee Rich of Lotus Photography, Matt Lit of Lit Foto, John Heisel of Heisel Photo, and Joshua Fletcher of Fletch Photography. Thanks Kent for the invitation and the ticket! — Sean

Photobooth for four

My sister Cathryn is visiting for two weeks and we decided one night to see Abby's friends Ailsa and Kenzie in Manitou Springs along with their parents Kevin and Megan. After a great dinner at their house we moseyed over to the Penny Arcade and the photobooth (I'm in love with this contraption). Here are the results of my own quarters. I need to figure a way to get the little ones higher in the picture frame :) — Sean

Three generations

My grandmother and mother visited last week to help with Abby-care while Cathy and I were photographing all of our weddings. Here's a little photo session they did on a dinner out in Manitou Springs. Abby didn't really understand what was happening, but I thought it would be cute for the three of them to have their photo taken by someone other than me. In this instance, my mom put the quarters in the machine :) — Sean

124 seconds at f22

On my way to the recycling center a lightning storm erupted over Rampart Range and pushed on to the city. I raced back home, grabbed my camera and this was the result. It was the last frame before the rain. Want to learn how I made this picture and how to photograph lightning yourself? E-mail me and I will send you a quick how-to!— Sean

Hiking with Abby

This is the time of year for hiking in Colorado. Wildflowers are out, sunrise is early and the pine forest is beautiful. We took a hike this morning with Abby to the top of Mt. Cutler. It's only five minutes from town and offers great views of the city and of Seven Falls, a local tourist attraction. — Sean

500 years of female portraiture

A morning landscape

Here's one incredible reason to live in Colorado Springs. I was out of coffee this morning, so I started to the store when I saw Pikes Peak covered in snow. It had rained all night, but in the mountains it snowed all night. It was just one of those very beautiful mornings. So I ran inside the house, grabbed my Hasselblad Xpan panoramic camera (yes, that's a film camera) and drove to the Garden of the Gods. I parked at the visitors center, climbed a hilltop and made this image with the scrub oak framing the mountain. Click on it to see the image larger, use it as a screensaver or even to print it. A signed, limited edition of 50 fine-art giclee prints are also available. E-mail me for more information! — Sean

Playing hooky with Patrick

My friend Patrick and I took a day off to go skiing at Winter Park. Our trip was arranged by Patrick's wife Steffi. It was a birthday gift to him. We're both 32...(ok 35) and we've known each other since college. It was an uneventful trip, unlike our freshman year when we tried to play hooky from school and my subaru gave out before we made it to the mountains...This time our transportation didn't fail us. We finally got to enjoy that long lost day of skiing instead of waiting for the mechanic:) — Sean

Kenzie and Abby play 'Giddyup!'

Kenzie loves Sean. Whenever she visits she will head straight for Sean saying, "Up! Up!" On Saturday we had Kenzie, her sister Ailsa and her folks over for dinner and this time around Abby got a little jealous. Sean was bouncing Kenzie on his knee, so Abby decided to climb up too. They both loved it and they were having so much fun I ran for the camera. — Cathy P.S. If you don't know who's who, our Abby has pig tails and Kenzie is the blonde:)

Abby's first day at Kindermusik

Today was Abby's first day at Kindermusik, a developmental program for toddlers centered on song and dance. (Thanks Grandma Great for your Christmas gift!) We had a ball, and even though Abby wasn't all the way awake (she fell asleep on the way there) she definitely had a good time. It's a day like this that I really appreciate being able to spend a morning with my wife and daughter and to photograph our fun:) — Sean

Mono-facial fun

Check this out. You need to have a flash-capable browser. It's a gas to do. You can change the face of the person just by clicking on it. You can also see other examples of the facial distortions made entirely by clicking. Click on the photo to see the web site or click here. Think of it as an interactive Mr. Potato Head. Happy clicking! — Sean

Which is it Will, Condi or Bob?

Ok, I can't vouch for this web site but it offers free face recognition of any photo you upload. So I thought I would give it a try. Here are the results:) Abby looks like all three of these well-known people but one more than the others. What's your vote? — Sean