When Momma's Away...

...The boys play. I wish I could say he asked for this.



Then I might be in a little less trouble. She said he could have a mohawk if he asked for it.

Mommy's in Dallas for the last part of this week for a church food service conference. She seems like she's having a good time. She'll think twice about leaving the boys at home alone again. Next time I might use our savings for a motorcycle. Shoot, I might do that anyway with these gas prices! I did get all the laundry done though.

10 Weeks

Amy just went to her 10 week appointment and we have our pictures of the baby.

Here's Pat:

Amy hates me calling him/her Pat. She says it reminds her of the Saturday Night Live skit. The baby's real name will be Caroline (middle name to be determined, either Marie or Grace. My vote's for Marie) or Charles Jackson (C.J. or Jack).

Anyway, Pat and Amy are doing well. Amy's still tired all the time, but seems to have more bursts of energy lately. She's going to Texas this week for a church food service conference so hopefully she'll be well enough to participate and learn what she needs.

Amy's due January 15th. I'm hoping Pat will come about 2 weeks early so we can claim him/her on our tax returns! Start the baby pool! I'm taking bets on the due date.

I've got two amazing little boys so it'd be nice to have a "daddy's girl". At the same time, I know how amazingly fun boys are. If we have a couple more boys, we can start a hockey team!

So anyway, start ordering those prints from my last post. Proceeds go towards having a new baby!

Selling Pictures

I've set up a website specifically for YOU to order prints.

http://callen.zenfolio.com/

I'll update the gallery regularly to hopefully keep interest. I've got 20 of my favorite summer pictures up right now, and in a couple months, I'll add a fall album.

Check it out even if you dont order prints, and forward it to all your friends!

Let me recommend this print in honor of the July 4th Holiday!

I Shoot People...

..and by shoot, I mean photograph.

I put that up on my website as the first line of my "About" page as well as the about paragraph to the right here. A friend of mine laughed and laughed about that. It is meant to be funny but it can be very serious too. In this day and age, people are getting shot left and right, and it's a very scary prospect bringing up a young family in the DC Metro area.

This all comes to mind because David Hobby (THE strobist at strobist.com) put up this fathers day post: "A Father's Day Reminder: Shoot Your Kids". I immediately thought of people who might read that out of context and the repercussions people have had from saying shoot instead of photograph.

As most of you may know, I'm a US Marine Corps Veteran. I that's where my funny tagline comes from. When I was in boot camp, my drill instructor had a USMC license plate frame that read: USMC Infantry. I kill people for a living. Fitting I guess, albeit a harsh way of saying it. I thought I'd play on that to a photographers favor.

A colleague of mine is also a Marine Veteran of over 25 years. He told me of a day he was tasked with going to shoot the president as part of his official duties as a Marine Corps Photographer. As soon as they drew their weapons, he knew the mistake he made. When he told the security detail what he was there to do, they detained him immediately! It took quite a while and a bunch of phone calls before he was able to be released to his command. Needless to say he didn't shoot the president with film or otherwise.

These days I'm very clear that I photograph people and shoot landscapes.

This is me after shooting a bunch of people (with a video camera that is. I was lucky enough to never have to fire a weapon in a hostile environment):