Norah Nicolas' First Grade Landmark Report - Golden Gate Bridge →

My daughter chose to do her first grade landmark presentation, on the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. I hope you like it!

/// Links /// Sony A7Rii Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM Wide-angle Zoom Lens (SEL1635GM), Black Peak Design Carbon Fiber Tripod Blue Snowball iCE USB Mic

///Credits///

music: http://www.bensound.com

Embedded Photos by: By Wa17gs - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 By Calibas - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 By Wa17gs - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0 By Roulex 45 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0

Norah Nicolas' First Grade Report on Bottlenose Dolphins →

Why not continue to use this shelter-in-place, safer-at-home, homeschooling, amazing family time to teach Norah on how to edit a movie using iMovie on macOS. I may have gone a bit overboard as it took an hour or so, but we had a lot of fun.

We taped using the Sony A7Rii, took pictures of the report then imported the data into iMovie. What we have below is Norah Nicolas' First Grade Report on Bottlenose Dolphins Norah Nicolas' First Grade Report on Bottlenose Dolphins for Mrs. Shemanski, Francis Parker Lower School.

During the past six weeks, Norah researched and learned how to not only create a report from scratch but how to write complete paragraphs using transitions, creating a table of contents and a glossary as well as voice-over work and editing on iMovie with her Dad, Elijah Nicolas. She marked, split videos and learned about transitions as well.

/// Links /// Sony A7Rii Full-Frame Mirrorless Camera Sony FE 16-35mm F2.8 GM Wide-angle Zoom Lens (SEL1635GM), Black Rode VideoMicro Compact On-Camera Microphone Peak Design Carbon Fiber Tripod Blue Snowball iCE USB Mic

///Credits/// music: http://www.bensound.com Bottlenose Dolphin and Killer Whale Orca sounds by: Watkins Marine Mammal Sound Database, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

A Great 1st Birthday Party

Over the weekend, my wife organized an awesome birthday party for our daughter Norah Renée. We had a lot of help from cousins, aunts and uncles and close friends. Thanks to everyone for coming out and celebrating the special day with us!

Thanks to James for capturing this awesome moment!

Twelve Months of Sprinkles Cupcakes

Celebrating month number one is exciting for new parents.  Adelle and I also thought this would be a great idea.  Who knew that cupcakes, representing each month in celebration of our daughter's special day, would amount to just a little over $270 in the course of a year!!!  It was expensive but in the end, we got to gorge on cupcakes, take great photos and celebrate with friends and family! Here are each one of Norah Renée's photos along with her wonderful cupcakes from Sprinkles.  We learned that the S'mores cupcake is our favorite, vanilla with sprinkles is a great treat but sometimes too sweet, and that if we invested the $270 dollars in Tesla stock instead, we would have quintupled our cash.

[gallery link="file" ids="4080,4081,4082,4083,4084,4085,4086,4087,4088,4089,4090,4091"]

On another note, if you haven't tried out Wolfram Alpha, you should give it a shot.  I used the summation formula from Wolfram Alpha for a quick figure.

Looking Back at Norah Renée

Exactly one year ago to the date and time, we welcomed my daughter into this world.  Everyday since then, my wife and I have been living a truly blessed life with such a vibrant, loving, huggable, and curious little munchkin.  As cliché as it sounds,  I really can't believe how fast time has gone by.  Happy Birthday to you Ms. Norah Renée.  Momma and I can't wait to celebrate and share more life experiences with you! Here's a photo of Norah at six months pushing herself up and staring back at me.  Not staged, not planned, my wife captured this wonderful moment.  The photo below is also unedited.

I've also just entered the photo into the I Shot It Child Competition 2013 No 3 for kicks and giggles. So far, with my entry, I'm at number 470. Ends in five days and there are so many great photos!!!  Wish us luck.

If you really want to know more about the composition and the photo, check out Jeffrey's Exif Viewer.  Here are the basic details: Olympus OM-D E-M5 ISO 800 1/40 f1.4 25mm

Introducing Norah Renée

I snapped this photo on the 2nd of September, 15 days after she blessed us with her presence. I used my new her new Olympus OM-D E-M5 paired with a Panasonic "Leica" DG Summilux 25/f1.4 and just brushed a warmer effect on Aperture. I'm still learning the ins and out of photography again and using my new micro 4/3s camera. If you have any tips and tricks, leave a comment!

http://about.me/norahrenee

Of course this shot was inspired by none other than my friend Gage Caudell. Check out his photo titled "Our Future". It's definitely a much better composition and a wonderful shot of his little girl. The month by month progression is fantastic!