Anatomy of soiling your clothes

Being a baby sure isn't easy. It's hard to walk, talk and sleep through the night. You also have to eat a lot of boring, pureed food, and submit to humiliating diaper changes at regular frequencies. Let's be honest, your fine motor skills aren't much to write home about either.

One particular hardship of being a baby was especially striking last weekend. The near-impossibility of keeping an outfit clean enough to wear through a full day.

Gaby illustrated this point perfectly when I happened to have the camera pointed her way.

Hey look! A puddle on the street. I should step in it!

Standing still is so 2010 - it's time to stomp and splash in the water.

I wonder what this water feels like?

The crystalline waters of this rain puddle are too pure NOT to play in.

Uh oh. I see my dad coming to get me. If I get up now, he won't notice!

Wait a second. What is this covering my hands and shoes?

Crap I've been caught!

Dramatic baby impersonation copyright Patrick Carlson, 2011. All copyrights will be fiercely protected!

The grow up so fast!

I have so many adorable baby pictures from last weekend. So sorry for over-sharing, but I just can't help myself.

Baby Gabby already is itching to get behind the wheel of her mama's car.

Abstract DC

A few shots from the last time I was out playing tourist in the District.

A different perspective on one of the Lincoln Memorial columns.

Korean War Memorial.

One tough baby

I spent Easter weekend with a baby. A HILARIOUS baby, named Gabi.

And even though she liked sniffing plastic jewels and flinging around Mardi Gras beads, she is one tough cookie.

If looks could kill - I wouldn't be around to post this picture today.

The Easter Bunny gets it

The Easter Bunny visited Casa Carlson once more this year, and as usual, ended up being sliced up and served to the visiting hordes.



Easter never tasted so good.

The next best thing

What does every budding (and veteran) photographer in the DC area look forward to every spring?

The cherry blossoms!

However, due to a bad twist of scheduling conflicts and laziness, I managed to miss the cherry blossoms around the Tidal Basin. Not a single blossom was to be seen by the time I finally made it into the District!

Luckily, cherry blossoms aren't limited to downtown DC. We also have them in our Arlington cul-de-sac.

What's more - our cherry blossom trees come with plastic easter eggs hanging from every limb!

Bumming around the District

Since we had guests over last weekend, we did the obligatory DC monument tour! We hit most of the major monuments (except Jefferson - we wimped out on the 90-mile hike to get over there and back.)

 

Sister wives with Tom at the World War II memorial.

The reflecting pool isn't reflecting much as of late. Evidently the duck and goose poop overwhelmed the pool, and they have to redo everything from the foundation up.

Megan and Tom (engaged!) in front of the Washington Monument. I did a photoshoot with them about a month ago, so I'll be posting some of my favorites as I am able to edit them!

The best place to kill an hour in Arlington

There are a lot of contenders for the best place to kill an hour in Arlington: Central Library, the Artisphere, Potomac Overlook, Northside Social and more.

But my favorite place in the county is a little plot of grass called Gravelly Point. You can stake out a picnic table or spread out a blanket and get almost-uncomfortably close to planes taking off and landing at Reagan National Airport.

The only downside to Gravelly Point is that to get there you have to drive through the airport, since it's only accessible from the northbound lanes of the GW Parkway.

The next time you have an afternoon with a few spare hours, be sure to check it out.
More information on Gravelly Point.

Right after the surprise...

We hosted sixty friends and family members to surprise the hell out of my Dad this past weekend. The party was months in the making, and we almost slipped up and spoiled the surprise so many times!

Right after my sister put the birthday boy Mardi Gras beads and sun glasses on him, I think he understood that he wasn't taking the family out to Mexican that night!

Dad's 60th

My family recently threw a surprise 60th birthday party for my dad. He was totally unsuspecting, going as far to ask, "Do I have to bake my own birthday cake?" because we were so mum on our celebration plans.

In honor of his birthday, my mom and I prepared a slideshow with pictures of him beginning in childhood. Some of them are such gems I have little choice but to share them with the world:

Baby Dave gets weighed on a lunch meat scale? You can tell by his facial expression that even at such a young age, he knows the indignity he's suffering in this picture.

Toddler Dave saying his prayers. See that mattress? It is still in use. The Carlson family doesn't do new mattresses. The 60-year old mattress is currently at the lake house.

Businessman Dave at his ice cream parlor, creatively named Carlson Ice Cream.

Daddy Dave holding his favorite child, and a misshapen tumor named Bonnie.

(Just checkin' if you're reading Bon!)

My finest work yet...

Last night was the quarterly aerospace happy hour - for aerospace peeps in the DC area to get together for drinks and good times at the rooftop bar of Cava, in Eastern Market.

I served as official (not official at all) paparazzo for the event.

And why YES! That IS Prince William and Kate Middleton with Snooki congregating with the aerospace happy hour folks.

Never before has the intertubes seen such amazing attention to detail in photoshopping celebrities, I know. :)

Progress report

This forsaken mask is taking hours and hours - and it will still be weeks before I'm done with it!

Since this picture was taken, the paint job has been cleaned up (thanks Chantal!) and it is now sitting home on my dining table.

Wait for it...

Here's my Tsam mask after about two hours of work, with my inspiration on the left.

Since taking this picture, I've spent about another ten hours on the project, with at least 4 more until it is done.

This mask is going to be so epic, and I can't wait to show it off!

Hamtdaa: Together

Hamtdaa: Together is an exhibit at Arlington's new arts center, the Artisphere. (Quick note: If you're from the area - quit procrastinating and plan a visit to this amazing resource!)

The exhibit features traditional Mongolian Tsam dance masks and other handicrafts from renowned Mongolian artist Gankhuyag Natsag.

Born in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Gankhuyag studied with the masters of Mongolian art from a very young age, winning an assortment of awards internationally for his amazing art.

Each of these pieces is laboriously created and brought to life with exquisite attention to detail.

And if seeing the exhibit wasn't cool enough - I actually enrolled in a master class taught by Gankhuyag himself.

I spent nine hours over the weekend designing and creating a mask in the Tsam style, and have lots of work left before I can show it off.

No it won't be anything as detailed (or terrifying) as this one - but I'm definitely taking some of the ideas. I can't wait to share!

New Music for a New Age

This weekend I watched my friends in the Washington Chorus perform one of their annual programs: New Music for a New Age. The program focuses on a different contemporary composer each year, and for 2011 the chorus featured Elena Ruehr.

Even though I was sitting in the nosebleed section (is it OK to call a part of the church a nosebleed section?) the music was beautiful - but it is hard to go wrong with a full orchestra and a 200-member chorus bullying its way into your eardrums.

All I'm going to say is, thank God for my zoom lens. I ended up using it as a pseudo-binocular half the time.

One of my favorite things to do after taking pictures at a concert is to look face to face to see what people really look like when they're singing. Some of us get so into it!

House Concert: Joshua Panda

There are few things better than house parties, and even fewer things better than good live music. So combining the two into an intimate house concert was a sure bet for a standout Friday night.

The musician of the night was Joshua Panda, a Charlotte native with a soulful voice and a sound that harkens back to the fifties and sixties. (Check the link to hear a sample of his music.)

He started the show with a quiet set, where he serenaded the audience solo with his guitar. After winning the hearts of all the girls (and a handful of the guys too) he invited the rest of his band to take the stage for more upbeat tunes.

It was only a matter of minutes before the crowd was up on its feet, boots stomping the wood floors to the rhythm and couples twirling one another around the room.

It was almost surreal seeing this in 21st century America - where culture is mass-produced and is consumed through touchscreen toys and flatscreen TVs. Here was a room full of twenty-somethings losing themselves to country/soul music.

All in all a fabulous evening, and one that I hope to be invited to again!



PS. Panda's last name affords him creativity when it comes to merchandise. Who doesn't want to add a pair of panda briefs to their underwear drawer?!?

Crystal Head Vodka

On a recent liquor-store run, an oddly packaged vodka caught our eye: Crystal Head Vodka.

Dan Akroyd (yes the SNL actor) owns the company that distributes this vodka, whose human skull-shaped vodka seems to be its biggest draw.

The company bizarrely plays up implausible archeological discoveries of similar crystal skulls - which makes this particular vodka so... erm.... special.

I'd love to tell you to run out and buy this vodka - but I won't. Unless you are collecting skull-shaped vodka bottles, it tastes like any other mid-priced vodka.