Babes in the Wood: Lincoln

Inspired by direwolves, I am continuing my Babes in the Wood project with Atticus and a three-week-old little Lincoln.

 

Trying to find a spot away from poison oak and close enough for everyone to walk to, we found a good spot near an overturned tree trunk. I scouted a bit beforehand, and looked on the Palo Alto University campus next door. Funny enough, my cousin Sara came out to visit a couple weeks later to look at that school and we got to visit Lincoln again in the pouring rain.

Sara feeding the horses...

Lincoln, skeptical that he was ever allowed to sit under Atticus.

Lincoln, skeptical that I can hold him correctly.

Babes in the Wood: Michael

Last weekend I shot photos of little Mike, son of the awesome Mary Ray and Mike Zyracki.

Having lived in San Francisco now for 17 years, I have somehow neglected to ever explore the Mount Sutro Open Space Preserve. The scene here at 9am on a Saturday was fairly generic: dog-walkers, the occasional mountain biker, a few joggers, then me and a large cart of photo lights, props and camera gear.

Borrowing some animal pelts from my pal and local punk rock taxidermist Beth Allen, we wrapped Michael in furs and made him wild, wooly and a little bit haunted.

Ray-Zyracki Team Expansion!

Babes in the Wood: Max

This shoot was pretty darn easy: had a vision, a tire, a gaffer, two parents a willing model, sunny woods and a location with a steam train and tracks nearby.

 

Kind of fun stuff of note: 

1. Max loved the chocolate thing from Arizmendi Bakery.

B. Steam trains rule.

3. Banana slugs aren't always yellow.

these guys look a little old for train time..

oil heats the steam train which moves a piston. rad! Also rad, a hobbyist made this train out of iron and brass parts in 1978 all on his own for a project.

a train ride and chocolate bread thing!

Babes in the Wood: Diego

"Diego, he's a pretty fun kid", to quote his mom...

... I couldn't agree more. Give him an axe and he's killer!

We shot some fun family pics as well 

some outtakes:

And then I needed a child hand model for another Chronicle Books kids placemats cover, so I roped Diego's mom into dropping him off to be a model while she had a haircut in the city. 

teaching Diego the fine art of throwing a model's tantrum and demanding a nonfat latte before working any more.

taking a dirtbiking-posture-on-the-CL175 break

Babes in the Wood: Ethan

Every once in a while a shoot goes smoothly, all is reaffirmed towards spending money and energy towards this project. Such was the case shooting Ethan this past week.

Noting, after the fact, that this could be a possible publicity still from Battle Royale, private school uniform and chosen weapon nearby. Though I suppose now it would more widely recognized as Hunger Games homage. I enjoyed both, but did read Battle first and will always love that it was a random find at a bookstore at SFO.

 

Ethan had just seen The Amazing Spider Man, and was testing out jumps and leaps in between photo-direction

And then Ethan and dad had to try out the bow and arrow:

 

annnnnd, more spider man

 

Babes in the Wood: Paloma

Little Paloma in a vintage crib.

big bro Diego helping out

Family portrait gets interesting

Babes in the Wood: Astrid

On winter break between holidays, I took to the Joaquin Miller Park for the third time to photograph the final contestant of the Smith family trio of kids: Astrid.

Hero photo from the shoot:

 

Some seconds:

 

 

The whole family as a triptych:

 

Babes in the Wood: Fiona

Last weekend I travelled up to Camp Meeker to take Steve and Megan's daughter Fiona out on a raft in the Russian River. 

Tony helped (actually made, entirely) with the building of the raft, with old fence boards and a bunch of styrofoam pilfered from Pottery Barn's photo studio (thanks recycling bins) and the SF dump (thanks Sharon!)

It floated Fiona just fine, Steve not so much....

My favorite from the day

Fiona's dad Steve testing the raft, giggling maniacally...

This is Fiona quite over anything more to do with standing on the raft..

Babes in the Wood: Milo

I took Milo to Joaquin Miller Park and shot him last week. Two times. Two afternoons of Milo, and then a trip to toy shop at Target

this is Milo earning almost half of a SpongeBob Lego kit

 

Camo Net

When looking up online photos of camo netting for inspiration and to procrastinate doing something else, I found a story about Seattle's Boeing plant using camouflage netting to hide the production of Boeing B17 Flying Fortress aircraft from Japanese aircraft attack and from aerial surveillence. I'm very intrigued by this photo, especially the two women pictured who worked at the plant:

Here's the whole story and the page I swiped the above photo from: http://www.taphilo.com/history/WWII/USAAF/Boeing/index.shtml