Eva

Today I tried to capture Eva learning how to pump. This is not that easy to do using a still camera. I also brought my flashes, umbrella and stand to try some off camera flash work. I'm loving the strobist stuff but I need more time to learn. I'm looking forward to some time at Christmas to shoot with Gary and a bunch of strobes. Here are a few pics of Eva with some off camera flash. (

When we got to the park the sprinklers were running so Eva wasn't overly impressed. (Flash with shoot through umbrella camera left) I like how Eva pops in this image.)


There is a hint of a smirk...


Again, it's hard to catch her pumping but this panned shot worked pretty well. Go Eva! (Dana gave me the panning idea)

The Cave of the Supreme Powers.

Today was a National Holiday in Mexico and we decided to check out an historical site called, La Cueva del Tabaco aka The Cave of Supreme Powers. I'm not sure what we expected to find there, but I was secretly hoping to see some of my childhood super heroes. Dang, that was the Justice League NOT the Supreme Powers. I should have known that I wouldn't find Aquaman in the desert. And I digress...

As per mexconnect.com,
In Viesca, in 1864, [President Benito] Juárez, a guest in General Jesús González Herrera's home at number 19, Hidalgo street, was introduced to the patriotic Mexicans who would soon become the official guardians of the federal archives which Juárez was carrying with him. The archives were hidden for several years in a cave, then known as La Cueva del Tabaco (Tobacco Cave), but now renamed La Cueva de los Supremos Poderes (The Cave of the Supreme Powers), before being restored to the nation in 1867 after the French left and Maximilian was executed. The cave is about 12 kilometers east of Matamoros. While there is little to see there today, this important event in national history is one rightfully remembered by all Mexicans and the entrance to the cave is via an impressive, modern, stone stairway.

Because I didn't take any wrong turns this time, we made it in 30 minutes! Micah found a way to sleep despite Josh's loud protest against car seats.


Dana snagged this image on the way to the cave. Love the road.


Dana also grabbed this shot as I pushed on to park so I could extract Josh asap. (Dana is shooting way more now and will be inheriting a well used Canon 20D this Christmas...which means one thing for me...)


The kids hustled up the stairs to the cave entrance. I had to slow them down to get a shot.


Not much of an entrance but we decided to push on inside. It was tight, dark and smelly. We lasted 30 seconds and then got out. Apparently, the caves run the length of the mountain. However, we weren't about to confirm that.


Lots of rocks with Mexican flag colours.


And some more. (This is an HDR photo. I took 3 shots at different exposures to get this look)


Eva climbed up the mountain and struck this pose.


Micah's turn. I love the smile.


The kids and I stopped here and took this pic of Mom and Josh down below.


We climbed back down and the kids found this massive boulder. Micah was a little nervous up there.


Check out his eyes in this photo. That is some serious concern.


Watching the sun dive from this old abandon road.


The van gets into the blog this week. We put it through its paces this week and it still looks good.


Eva and Micah doing their best to look mean.


They couldn't hold it though.


I brought my strobes and umbrella to try some outdoor lighting. This shot isn't good (D and J still look great) but the cool thing was that Eva was holding the umbrella and Micah was holing my flash while I made this image. We'll work on it and come up with something better next time but it's awesome having assistants.


Another HDR image on the way home.


What a nice way to end the day. Another beautiful Torreon sunset.

Las Dunas de Bilbao

Yesterday we drove out to Las Dunas de Bilbao. It's about a 40 minute drive or an hour and a half if you take a wrong turn. My bad.

Anyway, we have visited the sand dunes before and had a horrible time. I guess this is why we hadn't returned in the last 3 years. Dana, Eva and I went in July 2006. It's kind of weird looking at photos from that event and seeing Eva as a 1.5 year old and Micah in the womb. Weird. When we went in July it was 40 plus degrees and was absolutely no fun. Eva cried the whole time. But the kids are older now and it's winter here in Torreon which means it's only 27, so we thought we'd give it another go. IT WAS AWESOME!

We had originally thought it would be nice to get a family photo out there. But after Micah and Eva face planted on the first dune we thought better of it.

First things first, we have to get to the top of the dune.


Micah chose to slide down.


Eva chose to jump down. We tried to give her direction on leaning back but I guess it just didn't register with her. Good thing the sand was super soft.



Normally Eva cries in these embarrassing situations but not this time. She came up laughing hard.



Micah was trying to see how dirty he could get.


Now Eva is getting it. Cool.


Back to getting dirty.



Eva was having so much fun going down.


...not so much fun walking back up.


And Micah dirty again.


Eva climbing the dune.




Josh was beaching it.


Kicking it back with Mom.


Okay, so the pants Micah wore were a touch too big. So he decided to strip down to his undies. I love this shot. Micah walking out in the desert in just his undies. Awesome.


So then I asked Micah if he had to go pee and he said no. However, judging from the sand stuck to the front of his underwear I'd say he'd already taken care of business.
This was supposed to be just a shot of me but it's far better with Micah in it. Too funny.


The dunes looked amazing at the end of the day.


Time to hustle back to the van before the sun sets.


What a great outing!

The Full Christmas Card Shoot.

This first shot was a test to see how we wanted to set up Josh. I thought the Bumbo seat would be a great idea. I thought wrong.



Dana suggested that we put all the kids on their tummies. Perfect...for a while at least.

Shot 1.


Hair and make-up please.


Shot 2.


Shot 3.


And Josh is done.


And the final result...


We are "planning" to do another shoot today so that I can improve my lighting and hopefully nail a shot of Josh actually smiling. So the photo above may or may not be our Willms family Christmas card.
For some of you out there I'm sure it's still way too early to talk about Christmas. My apologies. Come back and look at this post on December 1.

2009 Christmas Card Shoot (Preview)

It was painful and we still know we can get better shots, but we finally got some photos with all 3 kids in them. Even better we brought down the Christmas stuff from the storage room and got our Christmas card production underway.

Here's a sneak peak:

Measuring Joshua

Today the kids were playing with Joshua on the carpet. Eva was helping Mom measure up Joshua.

But first....Josh's Mexican Passport. So weird. My son is Mexican. Now all he needs is his Canadian Visa so that he can hang out this Christmas in Abbotsford.



I'm not exactly sure what Micah is doing in this photo.


Eva showing Mom how big Josh is.


Eva and Micah really adore their little brother.


Eva decided to lay down beside Josh and measure herself against him.


Eva and Josh.