Joshua & Iris exchanged gifts. Joshua got a new potty; Iris got a new bathtub toy.

Joshua used his new potty immediately.

“Do you want to try out your new toy?” I asked Iris.

“No.”

I turned to Heather. “Do you want to try out Iris’ new toy?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said.

We filled the tub and plopped in a couple of toddlers. They had a blast splashing one another.

Heather & I played with Iris’ new toy.

About the time that Iris turned one, I started running once a month. That turned to twice a month and eventually once a week, interspersed with biking and general lazing around the house. Then winter came. General lazing around the house was suddenly interspersed with nothing. I started to go batty, not to mention gain a bit of weight. But every time I took Iris out, the temperature dropped and she came in with frozen footsie-pops. Poor baby! But I think, after a cozy test-run at -7°F, that I’ve finally got the outfit just right.

Let me back up a bit and define some terms. “Minimalist running” is defined by the footwear: the shoe structure is minimal. The shoe should have a 0° drop from heel to toe, none of that crazy “arch support” stuff, and a wide enough toe-box to let toes spread freely and happily as they will. “Running” is defined by a mid-foot strike. If you have a heel strike, no matter how fast you go, you’re still jogging. I run extremely slowly.

In high-school I used to slash my sneaks with razor blades to make them wider. In college, I taped each toe separately to keep them from rubbing. It was always a painful experience, but I pounded pavement faithfully. I enjoyed the running aspect of running. In fair weather and indoors, running was one of the few times I wore shoes. Unfortunately, at that.

Then this minimalist running craze happened. I got my first pair of those goofy-looking Vibram 5-fingers in 2008. They’re great! For me. In fair weather. But what to do in winter? Come the mukluk:

I’ve had these shoes for four years. They were the last decent pair of mukluk-type boots made by Sorel. Now it’s all fake-fur and pleather or veganaise— whatever you call that stuff made to look like leather that isn’t, lined with stuff made to look like fur that isn’t. Horrid. Anyhow, after four years they have holes just about everywhere you can get a hole and they’re re-sewn and patched all over. Yesterday I bit the bullet and ordered a pair of $200.00 Steger mukluks. Yikes! I’ve oogled them for so long… Now I just have to modify my ice-grippers so they don’t eat holes in the bottoms.

MY “MINIMALIST” RUNNING GEAR LIST; SUB-FREEZING:

(the extras are in case I stop a moment or go to a friend’s house; I need to change my soaking-wet clothing or catch hypothermia):

ON ME & MY SPARE CLOTHING:

mukluk boots (this is the one and only reason I can call myself as a minimalist)

ice-walkers

toe socks (x2)

neoprene socks or Gore-tex socks

wool socks (x2)

two pairs of leggings (x2)

long-sleeve T-shirt (x2 or 4)

bra (boobie-bounce arrester) (x2)

extra panties (I’m not going to tell you I wear panties. This is the one thing you must assume.)

wool camisole (x2)

hat (x2)

balaclava (I only own one)

jacket

fleece shirt in case I get cold

heavy wool sweater in case I stop at a friends house and want to look nice

snow-machine mitts

watch

two headlamps & rear blinky light

IN THE DOUBLE-WIDE CHARIOT, WHICH I PUSH VERY SLOWLY

all the extras (see above)

insulated bag with 2 canteens of warm water

backpack of useful things (potty seat, wallet, phone, crayons, clothing, lip goop, etc.)

camera & extra battery

TODDLER, wearing:

leggings

wool socks

fleece socks

Stones winter boots & boot liners

snow pants

long-sleeve T-shirt or dress

sweater with hood

thick fleece jacket with hood

mittens

rabbit-fur lined Mad-Bomber hat

then

I take a thick wool blanket, fold it in quarters, put half under Iris’ feet and fold the other half over her feet. I tuck my father’s huge Michelin-Man down coat around her and under her arms then top the whole thing off with a crib-size comforter.

And that’s it!

Totally minimalist.

We got some snow.

Martin got to use his snowblower.

I went to my friends’ house to take their Christmas photo. I know, I know: Christmas photos should be in color. Whatever. Anyhow, it was really hard! First off, we broke the cardinal rule of “always photograph toddlers in the morning.” Luckily, we were working with an unusually good-natured toddler.

Then, I had such trouble figuring out the light. Sitting-on-the-floor: window is to the right, flash is to the left. Unfortunately, it is unclear which is the main light. I also think that the flash is too far back: almost next to my subjects instead of in front of them, leading to some unfortunate shadows in people’s eyes and to the reflection of Mommy’s red sweater onto Daddy’s face. This is not so noticeable in monochrome.

For the window photos, I started photographing when it was still light out. As the session progressed, the sun set. I prefer the photos that I took after the sun set. However, the darkness introduced some complexities: only one source of light to work with and frightening reflections off the window glass. I could have moved the flash so it shone through the Christmas tree. That way, my subjects could have all looked at the tree and had their faces illuminated at the same time. It still might not have looked so good…

Then, there was the issue of my tripod. An important part of it somehow accidentally ended up in California. The lack of a functional tripod prevented me from putting the camera in a stable location in order to give my full face and attention to my friends.

In conclusion, I learned that I have way more to learn than I dreamed of. The above photographs are my favorite. I do not assume this is how my friends would like to be portrayed for Christmas, but this is how I see them: loving, silly and cute. And patient. With me.

I joined the clickinmoms forum.

It calls itself “a vibrant resource for artist, hobbyists and professional photographers.”

It is. I love it.

I glean ideas and vast amount of advice from the threads. I want to work with this one for a while:

“…Try shooting just in the light of the window. Put the actual window out of frame.

Turn all the lights off in the room and close the door. Expose for the light on their face.

Place your subject where the light falls on the floor. Have them look out the window.

Get the catchlights in their eyes. Have them turn, get those deep, dramatic shadows across their face…” —Kate T. Parker

Here is my first attempt:

I realize she was neither looking out the window nor sitting where the light falls on the floor.

Now, to once more coerce my friends into sitting for me..

Iris & I went to the Winter Festival at the Waldorf school yesterday. We got there at 2:30pm and, unfortunately, it ended at 3pm. We dashed in and out of some rooms filled with fantastic crafts. In one room was a woman named Selene Lutschg who makes upcycled baby and toddler clothing from old sweaters and sells them at her Etsy shop, Berchta’s Belly 1. Delightful! I looked and touched for a few minutes— and I here apologize to her for not purchasing anything— then I wandered off to the sound of drumming. Iris and I spent the rest of our time in a room full of drummers, following the rhythms of a man in a yellow Nelson Mandela T-shirt. Good fun was had by all.

After Iris went to bed, I shrank a couple of my less-favorable sweaters. I looked all over the internet for a pattern I liked but found nothing good. So today while she was napping I said what-the-heck, took out some scissors and went snippity-snap, sewed a few seams, added some buttons, and ended up with (what I think is) a cute little upcycled sweater dress.

I have enough material left over (the sleeves) to make matching pants, but Iris doesn’t really need matching pants.

I am studying the light at the K. house. I did not set up my flash.

The light in the front window is beautiful when shot from an angle.

I like it best with my subjects slightly to my left.

Shot straight-on, it is evident why I might want a second light source: a flash.

This is, essentially, a photograph of toes.

Aargh! I can’t believe I chopped off Iris’ toes in the peek-a-boo picture!!!

And such round, cute squishy little well-lit toes…

Upstairs, there is also some nice light.

It works because of the angle I’m shooting from.

I mean, I like the photo.

Then it was nap time.

I set up the flash again. Given that I have no light meter, I really have no clue how to figure out exposure. Granted, I have no clue how to use a light meter, either, but it seems there would be a logical set of steps to follow in learning. Currently, I am using what is known as the “chimping” method of exposure determination: take a photo, review the photo on the LCD to determine quality and go “ooh, ooh” if it’s any good. I don’t find this a good method at all. My flash photos are underexposed by a little to a lot. I tend to err on the side of underexposure anyhow, so this is really excessive. Nonetheless, I do happen to like this one photo of Heather holding Mesa. I admit it was a total accident, and not a terribly good accident at that, but I like it.

This next photo utilizes both flash and natural light. You can tell how much harsher the flash is by the quality of the shadow on Heather’s chest and under her legs. The window light has a nice feathered edge; the flash is straight. The original photo was terribly underexposed. I could have used a longer exposure and a lower percentage of flash to make it that the window lighting was dominant, tho this wouldn’t have eliminated the harsh edge on the flash’s light. I was goofing off with shooting through the umbrella vs. bouncing the light. I think my conclusion was that shooting through the umbrella seemed to produce a harsher light, but of course I didn’t take any notes so I failed to learn anything.

Then I went to check out the window in the back hallway. I like the light from this window, tho there is very little room to place a human in a photo in this location. So I used a very little human. The photo is underexposed again, but, again, I like it.

I made more pie.

It called for more whipped cream.

Licking the bowl was a family affair;

Iris crawled right in.

Compare these shots to Thanksgiving Night, where the light was off in the living room in the background.