You might think that we'd have saved our big fancy dinner (at which, miraculously, Jason was very well-behaved) for our last night on vacation, but we actually did it on our second-to-last night. We timed it just right to catch a nice sunset. Of course, I was more interested in looking elsewhere.

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Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX
f/2.8, 1/320, ISO 200

Last week was the first time that Jason ever really went into the ocean. He's been to the beach many times, and he's even been in up to his ankles in the surf before, but before this trip, he'd never really been out in the water. It was a nice day and the water was calm and warm. He had a blast.

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Nikon D40, Nikkor 55-200mm VR DX lens @ 86mm
f/4.5, 1/1250, ISO 200

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.

Jason does this thing sometimes, when he's really happy with us, when we're holding him, where he puts a hand on either side of our face and smiles. He just looks at us, looks into our eyes, all over our faces, beaming, and it's like he's drinking in the sight of the face in front of him, like he sees something there that's wonderful and amazing. It's one of the best things about being his parent.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX lens, and Vivitar DF-383 flash (in Gary Fong Lightsphere). Manual exposure mode, manual flash mode. Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/500, ISO 400, flash power 1/16. Post-processing in Aperture 3: cropped out a bunch on top and to the left; curves to increase exposure; levels to brighten midtones.

Thoughts for improvement: The focus is quite soft, but I can't decide whether or not I like it that way. The window in the background is a little bright as well.

I meant to post this one a week ago, but our post-Christmas travels took us away from the Internet for the duration and I didn't get the chance. I suppose it may be a bit tacky to be posting holiday snaps several days into the new year—a bit like all the people in my neighborhood who still have their Christmas lights not only up but lit. I figure, though, that the beginning of a new year is a time of anticipation and excitement, and a kid on Christmas morning has that in spades, right? That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX lens, and Nikon SB-400 flash. Aperture-priority exposure mode (matrix metering), TTL flash mode (+0 EV). Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/60 sec (+0 EV), ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: flash WB preset; crop to 5x7; curves to bring up exposure and add contrast; cloned out some spots on her face; applied skin smoothing to her face.

Thoughts for improvement: The flash here is simply bounced off the ceiling, so the shadows under their cheeks and eyebrows could be filled better. It would also be nice if I hadn't cut off her shoulder. I think it's a good capture of the moment, though, and I like the soft reflection of the Christmas tree in the background.

Here's another out-take from our Christmas card shoot. I like to do these up-over-the-head shots with families (which is to say, I've done it on both of the family shoots I've done). It may be kind of a cliche angle—I don't really know—but it's fun, and most of the kids I know like to be played with this way, so it makes for easy smiles.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX lens, in aperture priority exposure mode. Aperture f/2.8, shutter 1/400 (+2 EV, center-weighted average metering), ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: crop to 4x5; pushed recovery; curves for black point and contrast.

Thoughts for improvement: The major thing that could be improved here is the focus. I was shooting fast and didn't move the focus point to the upper part of the frame, so Jason's face ended up a little soft. That can be OK sometimes, but I tend to prefer sharp pictures, especially for this style and angle.

This year, we decided to skip the studio session for our annual family portraits—which is to say, our annual Jason portraits—and instead opted to have me take the pictures. This was a bit of a money-saver, of course, but it also gave me another opportunity to practice my technique and how to run a shoot. Plus, this way we could get the more natural style that you get from a location shoot. It turned out to be fun, and a good exercise for me as a photographer. I still have a ways to go, but I'm getting there.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX lens, in aperture-priority exposure mode. Aperture f/2.8, shutter 1/1250 (+1EV, matrix metering), ISO 400. No post-processing.

Thoughts for improvement: For being straight out of the camera, I'm pretty happy with how the lighting and color came out. Compositionally, I'd get rid of the people in the background and position Juliette and Jason so they weren't lined up one behind the other.

We do clean up fairly well, don't we?

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX lens, in aperture priority exposure mode (matrix metering). Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/1250 sec (+0 EV), ISO 800. Post-processing in Aperture 3: curve to bring up exposure and add contrast; heavy burn over the background; skin smoothing brushed over both faces.

Thoughts for improvement: Straight out of the camera, this shot was very underexposed. It's unfortunate, because at 1/1250 of a second, there was plenty of room to play with that—I can easily hand hold at 1/60 or even 1/30. I'd like to see how this would have come out at ISO 200 or 400, 1/30 sec, f/2.8. Even with the smaller aperture and slower ISO, that should still give me about two extra stops of exposure, which would either nail it or be perhaps a little overexposed. I actually like what a bit of overexposure does to eye color and skin tone, so I can't but think that the whole thing would be that much better.

We went to a wedding this weekend, and after we got all dressed up, Juliette wanted to take some pictures. We did some standard portraits of each other and a few that I took at arm's length of the two of us. This was the last one, by which point we'd devolved into pure silliness.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8 DX lens, in aperture priority exposure mode (matrix metering). Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/640 sec (+0 EV), ISO 800. Post-processing in Aperture 3: curve for contrast, desaturated reds and yellows, slight overall desaturation.

Thoughts for improvement: It's hard, of course, to get framing just right when you're holding a camera at arm's length. This turned out very cute, but I still would have liked to get more of Juliette's face in the shot. I do like the texture in my jacket lapel and the color and rumple of my shirt, though, so in order to get all that and more of Juliette's face, I would probably have to have longer arms.

About midway through Sunday's trip to Mission Beach, Jason decided that he wanted to get out of the stroller and go look at the water. Can't say I blame him.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 55-200mm VR DX lens, in manual exposure mode. Focal length 100mm, aperture f/5.6, shutter 1/2000 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: Daylight WB and Yellow Filter BW presets. Dodged over the subjects and burned the backgrounds. Applied a medium-ish vignette.

Thoughts for improvement: I'm not totally pleased with the post-processing in this one; the burning and dodging feels kind of sloppy to me. I think I'd also like if I were able to get more of the reflection in the sand.