Caden Standing

Posted on April 4, 2010

Here’s an image from a quick little shoot I did with Caden on the way to dinner yesterday. He’s standing by himself now and starting to walk, which is really crazy! Plus he had on a really cool outfit, so I just had to take some pictures.

Head on over to the family blog to see some more photos from yesterday and a video of his first steps!

One Year of No Cable

Posted on March 17, 2010

Roughly one year ago I ditched cable and bought an Apple TV. My thought was I only watch a finite number of shows each year, and I don’t watch live news or sports. I realized that by buying every individual show I watch (in HD, even) on iTunes, I could spend less than I was on cable TV and own all of my shows forever (instead of eventually having to delete them from my DVR).

Well, the numbers are in. 12 months of Comcast HD programming would cost me about $1100. My total amount spent on iTunes over one year: $921. That’s $76.25 per month, opposed to $90/month for cable.

One thing to consider is that this also includes music and iphone app purchases, as well as movie rentals, so really the amount spent on TV is lower than that. Conservatively, I’d estimate we spent maybe $65/month on average for TV. Did we save money? Yep. A ton of money? Not really. We basically just paid for our AppleTV, but let’s face it, I would have bought one anyway. And besides, I use it for proofing so it was a business expense.

Did we ever miss not having regular TV? A couple times. Kacie misses the food network, but that’s about it. I keep up with news via the New York Times iPhone app. (In 30 minutes I can peruse dozens of stories online instead of getting only five or so on TV news.) Neither of us are sports watchers, so that hasn’t been a problem. I do like to host get-togethers, so not being able to have everyone over for a football game/party kind of sucks. I do get over-the-air HD for free, and it’s great quality, there is just no ability to pause/record, and I can only get sporting events that air on local networks (ABC, CBS, etc.).

Conclusion? Well, I won’t be signing back up for Comcast anytime soon. I like saving a little bit of money each month, and I like the simplicity of buying each show when I want it, and owning it forever (”Office” marathon, anyone?). We’ve been working on acquiring kids show DVDs and ripping them to load them on the AppleTV, but I could see getting cable again down the road for the kids (but we don’t plan on letting them watch a lot of TV, so maybe not). I also like not giving my money to The Man. Well, I guess i’m just giving it to a different Man now, but one that is decidedly less evil than Comcast.

Do you think you could ditch cable? Discuss in the comments!

Valentines Day Treat

Posted on February 14, 2010

Look what Kacie made me for Valentines Day! A Cupcake Box of Chocolates. How cool is that? Love you, babe!

Happy Valentines day, everyone!

Snow!

Posted on December 4, 2009

If you live in Houston, then you definitely know about all the snow hullabaloo this afternoon. Our town gets so excited if a little snow falls out of the sky, and we’re simply beside ourselves if it actually sticks to the ground. Having grown up in Chicago I’m no stranger to snow, but Kacie has rarely experienced it.  I’m very excited that Caden got to see some his first winter (although I know he won’t remember it). At least we got some pictures.

You may or may not know that we started a family blog that Kacie is maintaining. It is over at TheNyholts.com. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out! She posts lots of pictures and stories, mainly about Caden. Below are a couple pictures from today, but there are more to see over at the family blog, so check it out!

Merry Christmas, and enjoy this freezing cold weather! Come next July you’ll be begging for it!

Happy Halloween! (Rawwwwrrrr!)

Posted on October 31, 2009

At least I’m pretty sure that’s the noise a dragon makes. This morning we visited the little pumpkin patch at St. Lukes. Here’s Caden Rawwwrrrring at us because he did NOT like the idea of sitting on the wet grass while leaning up against cold, slippery pumpkins.

To get a semi-happy-face we had to hold him.

And maybe a few kisses helped…

Everyone have a fun and safe Halloween!!! Love Caden, Kacie, and Adam

Jud Johnson Band at the House of Blues

Posted on August 28, 2009

My brother in law, Jud, is a very talented musician and has an incredibly good band, the Jud Johnson Band. Their style is very Jam Band, kind of Dave Matthew-esque, and they have some really good stuff. Check out their site! http://www.judjohnsonband.com.

Anyway, when I found out they were playing again at the House of Blues I asked Jud if I could shoot their set, just for fun. There are always a lot of photographers wanting to shoot for them, so I was pleased when he agreed to have me come along!

Nigel on Guitar

Enter Jud.

Scott Cole, an old friend, on Bass.

Zach on the Sax.

Ben is also an old friend, and an incredible drummer.

Thanks for looking! Don’t forget to leave a comment and check out Jud’s Music.

Caden Waking Up

Posted on August 17, 2009

What’s that? You want to see more of my ridiculously cute son? I don’t know…. I don’t wanna brag but… OK! Here’s a video Kacie took of him waking up one morning. It is ridiculously cute. It was taken on our D90, which takes very nice video, but is manual focus, so forgive our out-of-focusness as we tackle the learning curve.

What’s crazy is that this is remarkably similar to my waking-up routine…….

Caden’s Newborn Photos: First Attempt

Posted on August 10, 2009

I have to say I have a renewed respect for baby photographers. Over the past week Kacie and I have tried our hand at newborn photography with our always-willing subject, Caden Every single prop we used has been peed on, pooped on, and spit-up on. The same goes for Kacie and I. Finally we learned to keep the diaper on for as many shots as possible, and just hide it from view. Another challenge was Caden was simply too awake. It’s better to do these newborn photos in a baby’s first week, when they are very sleepy. Now it is hard to find a time when he is konked-out enough for us to contort him into all kinds of positions without him waking up.

Despite all those challenges, I still managed to get a couple decent shots. Here are some from our shoot yesterday.

This is when he finally closed his eyes for a few seconds.

Kacie and I love when he makes his “little mouth” face.

At least we got one good one

Here’s a little behind-the-scenes shot of our setup. A giant soft-box lit the scene while we hung Caden from a blanket attached to a C-stand. As you can see above, Kacie was on-spot. Most of the above shots were taken at 1/250 s, F/4, ISO 200 with the 24-70mm f/2.8 on a D3.

And here are a couple from a shoot we did a few days ago with Caden’s 2nd cousin, Abby. These were shot with natural light.

They insisted on trying to eat eachother

Thanks for looking! We’re planning on shooting some more today/tomorrow if we can find a good time when Caden is completely asleep. As always, feel free to leave a comment if you like the photos!

Caden Gray

Posted on July 24, 2009

Caden Gray Nyholt was born July 23, 2009, at 7:51 PM. He weighed in at 5 pounds, 14 ounces and measured 19 inches long.

It’s after midnight on the following day, and I am exhausted! Not nearly as much as Kacie, but exhausted nonetheless. I am actually home right now because I’m going to be shooting a fantastic wedding tomorrow for my clients Amanda and Fred. It’s going to be a long day of shooting, so we decided I better come home and get some sleep. It really sucks to be leaving my new family, but I’ll be seeing them again soon!

Yesterday, the day of Caden’s Birth, was a rough one for us. Kacie suffers from a pregnancy condition called pre-eclampsia, which is why we delivered 3 weeks early. Because of her condition escalating as she came to the hospital, she was put on this really awful medicine that does a great job at preventing seizures, but made her feel like crap. She had labored for roughly 12 hours when our doctor determined that Caden was going to have a hard time “fitting” and she called for a C-section. Less than 30 minutes later Caden came into the world!

Below are some photos from the whole experience. As I mentioned in my vacation post a few weeks ago I try not to live my life “through the viewfinder” when it comes to family, and instead I try to be “present” and just experience life. That being said, I’d be dumb not to bring my camera, so I did I only took it out occasionally, however, and during his birth I took very few exposures. If they came out, great, if not then oh well. There were far more important things to experience.

—Warning: There are a couple relatively graphic photos from the delivery. They’re not too bad, but a little different from my usual blog material —

This is almost halfway into the day. Kacie is starting to feel bad after being started on the bad medicine. Our amazing doctor, Dr. Cowen, and our superstar nurse, Liz (who is my sister) are seen working to make sure everything is going smoothly.

It was so amazing to have Liz be a part of our delivery. She really is a fantastic nurse, and she spent all day with us making sure Kacie and Caden were safe.

Kacie was not able to eat anything all day. This popsicle was her “lunch”, and was the only thing other than ice she got to eat.

The pumps feeding Kacie’s I.V.

Moments after Dr. Cowen called the C-section, people were running around frantically trying to get ready to go. The OR was kind of backed up, but there was a gap that we could slide in right then if we got Kacie to the OR immediately. I had less than a minute to put on my paper scrubs, and figure out what I was going to bring into the OR. Lugging my whole camera bag in there was obviously not an option. I had to decide between my D3 and my D90 (which can do video). I decided on the D3 and the 50 1.4. After arriving in the OR I took a seat next to Kacie’s head, behind the curtain hiding us from a view of the operation. The Nurse Anesthetist told me she’d give me a heads up when the baby was about to come out, and that I’d have a split second to take a picture and see him before the baby doctors whisked him away to evaluate him. I stayed seated as long as I could to comfort Kacie, who was really feeling bad and was pretty out of it. Finally, the nurse says “Do you have a strong stomach?”. “Umm, I think so,”, I reply. “I hope you more than think so…. OK, NOW!” I pop up and take 2 clicks.

This next picture captures perfectly the most amazing thing I have ever seen. The feeling I felt when I first saw Caden come out of the womb and into the world was indescribable. I was completely fascinated, overwhelmed, overjoyed, and full of awe. I consider this to be one of the best pictures I have ever taken. Maybe just because it’s my kid. I dunno.

Moments after I took this picture, Caden was gone. Kacie got a brief glimpse of him but was unable to really see him well because of the drugs. I told her not to worry, he wouldn’t stay that ugly

After the baby docs gave the all clear, Liz goes to work. She weighed him in, re-swaddled, then gave him to us to hold for just a few minutes.

Kacie holding Caden for the first time.

Liz took this picture of me. Good job Liz!

Liz and I wheeled him past the waiting room where about 2000 family members anxiously awaited his arrival.

My mom.

Liz showing him off from the nursery

Another one of my favorite pictures ever. Mom and baby learning how to breast feed.

My mom holding Caden. I think he looks just like me!

Kacie’s dad, Jeff, and Holly

Kacie’ s mom.

I love this picture!

He may look like me, but he has Kacie’s incredibly long fingers and toes! Maybe he’ll be a guitar player or pianist with great balance! He LOVES to play with his hands, and he is very expressive with them.

Finally, this is a picture I took of Caden sleeping in Kacie’s arms shortly before I left tonight. I love you two!!!!!

Well, that’s all for now folks! Expect gobs and gobs of pictures over the weeks, months, and years to come

Please leave a comment if you think Caden is the man!

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