Easter pictures of the littlest siblings. Let’s just say that this image took fewer tries than the Christmas portrait. Barely. But ain’t they just the cutest? Olivia likes to smile for the camera (daddy?) more than her brother, so there are more in-focus shots of her this time. :)
Click any picture for a larger view/slideshow.
One way I was able to get them to pose (a bit) was to let them know that if they let dad take some pictures out front they could go change clothes and go on an Easter Egg hunt in the backyard. That seemed to do the trick.
Olivia decided to open, explore, and play with the first egg she found. Intrepid Egg hunter Preston just zipped all over the backyard filling his basket with eggs. I think the final count was Preston: 21, Olivia: 3. Having mom stand in front of a couple and maneuver Olivia into place was instrumental in bringing Olivia’s egg count to more than 1. A good time was had by all.
I went to a great concert by classical guitarist Ana Vidovic yesterday. The venue was Central Presbyterian church in Towson, MD. Arriving shortly before Ms. Vidovic was to start, I ended up in a rear pew; about as far from her as you could get. But the acoustics of the church are very good, and I could hear her guitar quite nicely.
I really enjoyed hearing Ms. Vidovic playing in person. I first heard her on the recommendation of a coworker; she is an extremely talented and accomplished guitarist!
Fortunately, I learned at a previous (acoustic) concert that my camera has a fairly loud shutter, so I waited until the very end of the concert to pop into the aisle for a picture of Ana – the one real benefit of the rear row was that this didn’t block anyone’s view. I also found the dedicated “quiet” mode of the camera (yes, this does dampen the mirror flip/ shutter release sound!). The above picture is a crop of a shot taken at ISO 3200 (!) with my lens zoomed to 200mm. Not too bad from ~100 feet away (back of the church).
The program:
- Four Pieces by Astor Piazzolla
- Verano Porteno
- Milonga del Angel
- La Muerte del Angel
- Primavera Portena
- From 12 Songs for Guitar, arranged by Toru Takemitsu
- Secret Love
- Over the Rainbow
- Yesterday
- Recuerdos de la Alhambra by FranciscoTarrega
- Asturias by Isaac Albeniz
INTERMISSION
- Suite Castellana by Federico Moreno Torroba
- Sonata in D major, op. 77 by Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco
- Allegro con spririto
- Andantino, quasi canzone
- Tempo di Minuetto
- Vivo ed energico
- La Catedral by Agustin Barrios Mangore
- Preludio saudade
- Andante religioso
- Allegro solemne
The only real drawback to the afternoon’s performance was the lady directly behind me who would root around in her purse for 10 minutes hunting her elusive Tic-Tacs. Upon finding them, she would forego merely dissolving them and proceed to crunch them individually. However, she was almost in time with the guitar, so it just added a little percussive accompaniment.
And a good time was had by all.
