I like to call Jason "Monkey," among other things. Sometimes it fits a bit more than others.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/2.8, shutter 1/1000 sec, ISO 800. Post-processing in Aperture 3: straightened; max recovery; burned over the background; levels to darken shadows; curves for contrast.

Most nights, I'm the last one to go to bed. Jason is in the bath by seven and asleep not too long after that. Juliette has to get up early to be at work on time, and anyway she likes to fall asleep with the TV on, something that I can't do. I always have more work to do—pictures to edit, blog posts to write, business stuff to plan—and then I do like to have a little quiet time to myself at the end of the day to unwind. I read or do a crossword, or just surf the web aimlessly. Lately I've taken to having a nightcap or a cup of decaf.

Eventually I get tired or realize it's late. I check to make sure the timer on the dishwasher is set, let the dog out one last time, then turn out the lights. The last thing I do before I climb into bed is check in on Jason.

He's been in his "big boy" bed for a couple of months now, and although he's mostly used to it, he still hasn't settled into sleeping in a regular orientation. So, every night when I go in, I find him twisted up in a different position. Occasionally he's in what I'd consider a normal sleeping position. More often he's squished up against the toddler rail or lying lengthwise across the foot of the bed, or upside-down and on top of the blanket. He's never liked his actual pillow but he does like to have something under his head now, so often I'll find him with his cheek pressed up into a wadded up blanket or a stuffed animal—he never has a shortage of either in that bed.

It makes me grin to see him all twisted up like that, and I wonder how long it's going to take to start sleeping more "normally." Sometimes I wonder how long it took me. But mostly I just look at him and watch him breathe. Most nights it's all I can do to stop myself from climbing in there with him.

It's been hard to find time to get out and shoot lately, what with everything that's been going on lately. Happily, I was able to combine some family time and business planning this weekend when I took Jason for an outing to Old Poway Park. I needed to scope out the grounds and check the quality of the mid-day light in advance of a promotional event I'm planning for next month, and Jason needed to get out of the house and play after being cooped up for several days due to illness. He was, of course, insistent that we go straight to the playground first, but once he'd gotten some good climbing and sliding time in, he was pretty agreeable about the test shots I wanted to take.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/2, shutter 1/1250 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: cropped to square; curves for highlight recovery; levels to darken shadows and brighten midtones; dodged over Jason; burned over the bright sky and ground; added vignetting.

Well, now we're in for it.

"The Popculturist Reads Leviathan Wakes":

I’ve got a question for you science fiction fans out there: what was it that first drew you to the genre? It occurred to me to ask that of myself recently when a friend of mine sent me a copy of his new novel, Leviathan Wakes. You see, a lot of science fiction (SF) is highly concerned with exploration and discovery, whether it’s in the literal sense of finding new worlds and new civilizations, or more figuratively by using the genre’s framework to delve into some arcane bit of scientific lore or to highlight some facet of the human condition. It can be a very cerebral genre, providing deep intellectual satisfaction.

"Jason, what's my silly name?"

"I don't know." [laughs]

"Is it Daddy Waddy?"

"No! Not today!"

"Not today?"

"No, that's yesterday!"

"So what's my silly name today?"

"I don't know. Ummm... Radio!"

"Daddy Radio?"

"Yeah!" [laughs]

"Oh my goodness, how silly."

"And Cooper is... ummmmm... [looks around] House!"

"Cooper House?"

"Yeah! [laughs] And Jason is... ummmm... [looks around] Bird!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah! [laughs] Jason Birdy! Not Turkey today, Bird! And Mommy is Mommy Gobble Gobble! [laughs]"

This is Jason's current favorite game. He loves it so much that it's nearly guaranteed to pull him out of a tantrum or distract him from something else he wants. The best part is how he can so thoroughly crack himself up just by looking around and picking at random something that he can see.

2010 was a pretty good year for animated movies. Of course, Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon were fantastic, and I wrote before about liking Tangled quite a bit. Heck, even the latest Shrek offering was decent. And then Jason's interest in movies has been growing steadily, and we had a bunch of theater gift cards left over from Christmas, so we decided to take a chance on Gnomeo & Juliet.

Unfortunately, though perhaps unsurprisingly, this gnomish take on Shakespeare's classic tale of star-crossed lovers failed to measure up to the high bar set by last year's animated hits.

I had my suspicions going in, of course. I mean, a tragedy ending in a double suicide doesn't seem like the most fertile ground for a family cartoon, does it? But then, animation studios have been doing a great job with creating more honest, engaging children's fare lately, well-written stories with fully realized characters. Maybe this one would follow that same path, I thought. And then I heard Kenneth Turan's review on NPR's Morning Edition, in which he called it "playful, inventive, and endearing," and "the pleasantest surprise of the season." With that kind of praise, I let myself be talked into overcoming my initial reservations.

Having seen it for myself, I have to wonder whether Mr. Turan and I actually saw the same movie. The writing was completely formulaic and dull, replete with your wise-cracking sidekicks and pop music montages. The performances were forgettable. The humor was tired, and there was no real sense of emotional engagement. In short, there really wasn't anything to lift this above the level of, say, Shark Tale or one of the middle Shrek movies.

Leaving the theater afterwards, I had this image of a bunch of clueless studio execs sitting around saying things like, "Our focus studies showed that parents appreciate pop culture references," and "You know what would be hilarious? Let's give this one character a bunch of malapropisms for no reason. And then he'll be voiced by Michael Caine!"

Now, look, I don't have anything against these ideas, per se, but if you must put in pop culture references, could you at least put in some fresh ones? There must be hundreds of movies at this point that have used the Matrix bullet-time gimmick or the American Beauty rose petals or thrown in an "I wish I could quit you" for no reason. Maybe that was OK the first year after those movies came out, but it's just not topical anymore. Nobody cares anymore.

The really tragic thing about this movie is that there was actually some evidence that somebody involved actually did know something about filmcraft, because there was one scene that had some genuine emotional content. (Tellingly, there was no dialogue at all in that part.) But even that didn't really work in the context of the film as a whole, being almost a throwaway scene that ended up just feeling incongruous with all the silliness in the rest of the movie.

Of course, there's always the chance I'm just being snobby. Most of the other families coming out of the theater with us talked about how good and cute it was. They seemed pretty happy on their ticket purchase. Maybe they really did like it; maybe they just liked having a chance to get out of the house with the kids. I don't know. But in an era where Pixar is repeatedly proving that you can make animated movies that are both entertaining and emotionally complex, I just can't recommend a movie like Gnomeo & Juliet.

Viewed: 2011-02-19 | Released: 2011-02-11 | Score: D+

IMDb Page

This is from the wedding Juliette and I attended back in October, a couple of close friends from our college days. Each table had a different theme taken from a story that was meaningful to the couple. Ours was "Rivendell," which I imagine most of my readers will recognize from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. As you can see, it all came together beautifully.

Looking over the shots I got that day made me think it would be a lot of fun to shoot weddings. Stressful, but fun.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/60 sec, ISO 800. Post-processing in Aperture 3: slight curve for highlight recovery and constrast.

Sometimes Jason falls asleep when we're driving somewhere. This can be problematic because if it's before his nap then he most likely won't take one later. Even if he's already had a nap, he still usually wakes up grumpy. So, if he hasn't woken up by the time we've reached our destination and we're not pressed for time, sometimes we just sit around, try not to make any noise, and wait for him to wake up on his own. This can take anywhere from a couple of minutes to over an hour.

As you can see, this eventually leads to me getting bored.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/8, shutter 1/30 sec, ISO 800. No post-processing.

Thoughts for improvement: Well, it's neither particularly interesting nor well-composed, so there's a lot of room for improvement as an image. But it does work pretty well as an example of the way I see and think, which is why I picked it.

This is what Jason looked like on Christmas morning while his Nana pushed him around the kitchen on his new tricycle. You may draw your own conclusions.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens, and Vivitar DF-383 flash (in Gary Fong Lightsphere). Aperture-priority exposure mode, TTL flash mode. Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/60, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: flash WB preset; curves to bring up exposure and add contrast.