Dad, can you fix this photo please?

Last night, while I was at the jail for jail ministry, I get a text from Jenna asking if I could fix this photo.  Having a dad that is a professional photographer has its perks.  

I popped the photo in Snapseed on my iPhone and fixed the contrast and just for fun cropped my son-in-law, Colby, out of the frame and texted it back to her.

 I immediately got this photo back.  The truth is I love this boy.
 I am so thankful that he is part of our family and I am so thankful for the way he loves Jenna.  I really couldn't be a more proud father or father-in-law.

First Christmas Tree 

Jenna is coming home!

I am extremely jealous of Jenna. Last night she was at the Grand Canyon. She has been on chorus tour for the last ten days all over Arizona and California. They have had a great time but I am ready for her to be home because its just not the same without her.

Photos from Today

After my previous post, about high minded use of RF film cameras to brush up on my photography skills, I left the camera at my office yesterday.  So today I pulled out my original digital slr the Nikon D1X and  turned it to b&w and mounted my 35 F2 lens and got busy taking photos.

The card game of the weekend has been UNO.
We had friends over this afternoon and they got in on the action as well.
Jenna and Facebook on the phone.
Jenna also in the card game action.

Tonight we went to Jackson's baseball game.  This is Cade the catcher who by the way has a brother named Catcher.
Jalen is our kid with the most nicknames.  We call him Boo, Boo Dog, and many other things but when we are at Jackson ball game Jalen becomes Batman because be he is the batboy.
Coach Craig gets animated between innings.

The last at bat pep talk.

Jenna's Cakes

GeoTagged, [N35.25082, E91.72787]

Jenna has taken to cake decorating and really loves it. She took a cake decorating class during Cats Week earlier in the semester. She also took my photography class but she hasn't been shooting a ton of pictures in really cool lighting so I am a little confused? Pictures or baking and making cakes I think I know what Jenna is thinking.

Jamie's Birthday

Jamie turned 11 this week. It is hard to believe that she is growing up so fast. Jenna and Kathryn Phillips made her birthday cake on Thursday afternoon since all the kids were out of school for parent/teacher conferences.
This is the cake that Jenna decorated for Jamie. Julie and I went and picked up Jamie who was at Kids Stage and took her to eat supper. Jamie picked Casa Brava for supper, but it was a hard decision, Chili's, Chinese, or Huckelberry's for fish. Jenna came up with this design on her own and did all the cake with zip lock bags no other cake decorating tools. Earlier this year during Cats Week she took a cake decorating class with Cheryl White and she loved it. I think we may have a cake baker in the family. Jenna and Jamie with the birthday cake. We invited the Turners over to have cake with us after we went to Jackson's Little Dribbler event at the HS basketball game.

Volleyball

Jenna started playing volleyball for Harding Academy this year. This is the first year for VB at the Academy. The ninth graders have never played before so they haven't won many games but they are improving. Last night they played Lonoke and they lost both games but Jenna had a great game. As you can see from the photos she returned several serves. She really loves playing . Tonight they had their first away game in Little Rock. Julie texted me that Jenna served 7 straight serves before they lost a point. I missed it because I had to be at jail tonight. The HA VB coach is Michal Giboney. Her husband is Keith Giboney who is the HU vb coach. I have a couple of more memories of volleyball. In college I took VB and Table Tennis one summer as a PE class. The class was in the Rhodes Field House before it was remodeled. James Frank was my teacher for that class. When I was a senior in HS I got to photograph one VB game for my HS yearbook. Mr. Cox was an administrator at HA in Memphis and he took all the photos for the yearbook. He sent me to Kingsbury to shoot a volleyball game. My camera equipment at the time was a Pentax K1000 with a 35-135mm zoom and a Sumpak flash which I think was a model 26 SR. When I was in 11th grade I talked Mr. Cox into sponsoring a photography club for several of us that were interested in cameras and such. I think we might have met 3 times. I remember that Mr. Cox used an Olympus OM-2s camera body and he had a Tokina 50-250 zoom lens and he used a Metz 45-CT1 flash on a Stroboframe. I really liked how the Olympus body would average spot meter readings and I didn't know why that might be important back then but I just knew it was cool.

Film Scans-Jenna

I don't often get photos of Jenna because she is not around as much and most teenage girls aren't crazy about getting photos made by their Dad. Lately, Jenna has been at Volleyball practice. This is the first year that Harding Academy is having VB. Tonight Julie, Jenna and Jenna's friend Lindsey are gone to LR shopping for school clothes. I am home with the other kids watching a Super Mario Movie. I really thought Zach and Cody was bad but a Super Mario Movie is a whole different level.
This photo is Jenna sitting on her bed in her room packing for Camp Tahkodah. She was gone to camp for three weeks this summer. I can't believe she is 14. School starts Monday and she will start 9th grade. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I was in 9th grade. But the truth is I have been out of HS for 20 years.

Summer Camp

Jenna, Jamie and Jackson are headed to camp today. This is the first year for Jackson and I think he is excited. He has his video camera packed and his headlamp flashlight. My niece,Casey, is coming to go to camp with Jamie. Camp Tahkodah is run by Harding and the director is Ross Cochran one of Harding's Bible Professors. Ross and Nita have run camp for the last several years and they do a great job. I look forward to the time when I can go and spend the week at camp with all the kids myself.
PHOTO NOTE: The top photo is a real Polaroid. I was inspired by watching the movie Martian Child to shoot some Polaroid film before it is gone forever. I got my Polaroid camera from Julie. She took a pre-school seminar on using photography in the class room several years ago when she worked for the educational co-op in Bebee. I have a couple of other Polaroid cameras and HU has a Polaroid back for its Bronica 645 camera.

Carpenter Kids Graduation

Last Night was the End of the Year Program for Carpenters Kids at College Church. Josie is marching in in line with her class and as I found out later she is perfectly displaying the "Hips and Lips" marching technique. Your finger on your lips to keep quiet and your hand on your hip to keep it out of trouble. Teachers that think up these things are brilliant.

Josie is wearing her yellow bumble bee shirt and her graduation hat and diploma. Her class and another class did a musical number but she was on the back row and I couldn't see her to get pictures.

Josie and James are in the same class at Carpenter Kids. Tuesday, Josie sent James a card she had made him when she was gone for a couple of weeks because of her dental surgery. She wrote him a card and told him she had been in the hospital because her teeth hurt. She also sent him $5 because he is her friend and she had three $5 and she wanted to share one with him. After Julie did a little investigation it turned out that Josie had gotten Jenna to tell her how to spell all the words that she needed to write her card for James. One day there is going to be some lucky dude who finally catches Josie and who knows it might be James.

Joshua is another one of Josie's friends who wouldn't pose for a photo so I just put my camera on moterdrive and chased him until I got this photo. Joshua is a sweet kid, he is also in our Sunday School class.

Bazz and the Girls

David and the girls pose for a shot before the BBQ starts.

Old Journal

I found an old Journal and it only had two stories in it. As you can see by the dates I am not very good at writing things down. This blog really is much easier to keep up with than that old notebook.I will try to find some photos to add to this post soon.



3-13-2001


Some of the things that have happened latelythat need to be remembered.

Julie was very sick last week with the flu and a sinus infection. Jerry and Linda came and got Jamie and Jackson and kept them until Thurdsay. When Jamie came home she had a new dress up outfit ( a wonderwoman costume). Thursday night when we were saying prayers, Jenna was saying her prayer and was praying for Jackson to be a better brother and for Jamie to be a better ( and she paused trying to think of a way for it to not sound negative) during the pause Jamie whispered “Superhero”.


Jackson has starting calling his pacy a papese just like Jenna and Jamie called it.

Jenna learned to ride her bike without training wheels.

Jackson loves: mashed potatoes, cars, Dodge comercials, to sing Bible class songs, his soft fleece blankets, wearing the girls shoes and playing outside.

3-8-05

Josie is almost 2 yrs old and she is really starting to talk. She likes to drink milk which she calls monlk. Jalen has a built in airplane and to get the wings out you just have to push his belly button. Jackson just lost his front tooth. Jamie gave her best Valentine card to J Paul Fullerton and Jenna gave hers to Austin Yates.

Jenna Driving

Jenna and Katie riding the 4 Wheeler.