This photograph was taken February 28th.

We went to NVF & saw cow milking and goat milking, but despite numerous lactating pigs, there was no pig milking.

My lovely, patient model with the ever-growing belly has let me post some photos of her on my blog. I hope she doesn’t mind the quantity. I always think I learn a lot when looking at photographs I’ve taken, but it’s sure hard to implement this new knowledge. In all of these photos, the light is too harsh. Where indirect light falls (i.e.: on the feet, just under the window), the exposure is perfect. However, right in front of the window, the light is pretty harsh. It’s good for making silhouettes, but not so good for getting detail and good contrast. I’ve had these issues before. I need to use indirect light: window light, but keeping the window itself out of the photo. So, if I was going to have free-range at rearranging the Hack house, I would put the kitchen table in the living room and Heather sit on it. I would shoot so that the dark wall is in the background. The slightly-unsightly seam on that wall would not be so hard to remove.

See the perfect toes? The unfortunately grey face?

In real life, Heather’s face is at least as beautiful as her toes, depending on your preferences.

(I do like toes…)

& I think if the front leg was down, it would show off her belly better.

This one is my favorite of the bunch. I like the movement.

This is my favorite belly profile. The light is perfect, as is the belly-button, & I like the crossed legs.

Then there’s this one, with the focus on the house in the background

and the limbs of the trees draping gracefully at the edge.

It’s what some would call “artsy” and others would call “out of focus.”

I like the story of momma+baby+house=home.

Thanks to generous family and friends and the presence of an existing child, Heather doesn’t need anything for her soon-to-come baby. At least, nothing I can afford. So I figure, if someone doesn’t need anything and I feel compelled to give them something anyhow, it should either be (1) delicious or (2) small and always (3) made by someone totally awesome. In this case, the awesome person is me. I decided to make baby Leigha an owl.

First I made a 1″x1″ doodle of my idea. Then I made a bigger doodle. Then I started cutting fabric. For some reason, having a child has liberated me from the confinement of using sewing patterns. I used: six co-ordinating colors of fleece fabric, six colors of thread, three types of ribbon, half a plastic snap, some quilt batting,  some crinkly plastic and a couple of steel jingle-bells. The owl has a wingspan of about 7 ¼” or 18.5 cm. It’s so adorable! I want one for me…

Oh, and what did I learn about photography today? To use snow as a neutral background, shoot into the sun and let the object’s shadow fall onto itself. That way, the whites are burned-out whites and the object’s colors remain somewhat vibrant. Otherwise, the snow turns neutral-grey & when I try to fix that, the colors get a bit washed out. I’m sure there’s someway around that issue, but it takes time.

We don’t have a Jack-in-the-box,

but we do have a totally awesome vintage 1974 Fisher Price cash register with all six coins.

Iris drives off in the getaway car as Joshua tries to heist the cash register.

Joshua checks out Iris’ butt.

Iris adores baby Mesa.

Joshua writes Iris a message on the magnet board, but Iris can’t read.

Mesa is astounded with Joshua’s skill at making the climbing men climb.

Joshua assesses whether the toys are distributed evenly enough across the floor.