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Before Tony was born Nilsa found this great little hat. It’s the kind of hat you can put a baby in because, well you can. We liked it so much we decided that when he came home from the hospital he would wear it. Somehow I never made a picture of him […]

Tony started on “solid” food a few weeks ago. It’s a new chapter in his life an a new series of photo opportunities. He grabbed for the spoon almost immediately to feed himself. He’s trying to be independent.

Tony took to bananas right away.

Leica MP
Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH
Kodak Porta 400NC

You need the spoon […]

It’s taken me weeks to get around to posting this, but life has been way too busy. June is almost over! We took Tony to his first backyard barbeque on Memorial Day (26 May 2008) and of course I have photos to prove it. As he gets older we are finding he […]

Here’s a couple of contrasty images I shot this past weekend. At the time I took these photos I knew that without a flash to fill in the shadows, I’d blow out the highlights and leave deep shadows by metering on the mid-tones (Zone V). In other words, I shot a normal […]

This Mother’s Day was very special. Last year Nilsa was a mother to be. This year she has officially joined the club. We spent the Mother’s Day weekend visiting my folks and her folks, going to church, and letting Nilsa sleep in late! She keeps Tony and I fed and […]

Charlotte celebrated her seventh birthday late last month with a small party at my parent’s home. I brought Tony along and everyone was glad to see him. People were only too happy to hold him and have their photo made with Tony. It’s been so busy that it wasn’t till now that […]

We had one of those weekends where we worked on a job that we’d been talking about working on but never quite found the time to do. But all work and no play makes for work. And the weekends need to be about more than work. So to balance things out we took […]

Tony has started babbling. His babbles are getting louder while remaining unintelligible, kind of like Bob Dylan. In a baby’s vocabulary the word “goo” is very important. “Goo” is used to express whatever emotion or sentiment the baby is feeling at the time; I’m hot, I’m cold, I’m happy, I’m sad, I […]

Last Sunday I took Tony up to see my parents after church. He slept most of the morning and after the initial novelty of being at his Grandparents house wore off, Tony got a little cranky. My Dad solved the problem by walking around with Tony on his shoulder till he fell asleep. […]

After Tony was born Nilsa began searching for a church where we could get him baptized. It was important for both of us to see that Tony received a proper Christian baptism. Nilsa took on the task of finding us a church that would baptize Tony, and provide us a good place to worship.
In February, […]

This past Saturday Tony celebrated his thirteenth week of life. We wanted to make pictures and since Nilsa had been saying that we need more pictures of me with Tony, I used this opportunity to teach her how to use my Nikon F100. All photos except the last picture posted in this blog […]

Nilsa frequently says “we don’t have enough pictures of you”. Be careful what you wish for is all I can say. I attempted to capture a couple of photos of myself holding Tony by shooting into a mirror, and several of me alone. Sadly, what you see here are the best of […]

The safety and security of their mother’s arms is a special place for every baby. They say no one will love you like your mother, and on some level I think even the smallest among us understand that. There is a look of peace and content that you can see on a child’s […]

I could not resist the chance to capture more photos of two of the people I love the most. I was down in the kitchen the other day feeding Tony and Nilsa came in and decided she want to dance with her little boy. On comes the Bob Marley CD “Legend”, and I […]

Nilsa went ahead and contacted the pastor of St. Johns Episcopal Church to see about getting Tony baptized a couple of weeks ago. And shortly contacting Pastor Schuler, after we began attending St. Johns to introduce ourselves and Tony to the congregation. These photos were from a few weeks ago after Grandpa Luke, […]

Tony’s pediatrician advised us to wait 30 days before taking him out, so during that time the only place we took him was to the doctor’s office. Since infant immune systems haven’t developed immediately after birth, we felt that this advice should be heeded. Adding to that the winter months are the height […]

We were able to get both of our parents to come by for a afternoon visit. We were worried that Tony might not be in the best of moods since we spent most of the morning trying to keep him from spitting up on himself and his diaper clean and dry. When the […]

You can’t start a child off early enough with the right values and practices. So what better time to introduce Tony to photography than the first few weeks of life. I’m trying to get the little guy use to being around the hardware so I figured I’d leave an MP with him. I […]

My parent’s were suppose to come over to visit the day after Christmas, but we ended up at the pediatrician’s office to see why Tony was so fussy (another blog entry altogether). So we had to postpone their visit till December 29th. Things turned out well since they brought more food and Nilsa […]

The week between our coming home from the hospital and Christmas seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, yet take an eternity. I’ve lost track of what day it is. When I’m off from work, it’s hard enough remembering if it’s Monday or Tuesday, but now I couldn’t even begin to […]

On Saturday, 15 December 2007, Anthony Luke (Anthony after my Grandfather and Luke after her Dad) made his debut into this world. We had been preparing for his arrival for quite some time, but nothing could actually prepare us for actual arrival. Nilsa’s water broke at about 7pm the night before and she called the […]

I love steam driven anything and a couple of years ago I stumbled upon a number of steam traction meets around the Maryland and Virginia area. One of the better shows is put on by the Maryland Steam Historical Society, Inc. in Arcadia Maryland, held every September. I went up with both MP’s around my […]

In late August, Nilsa, her parents and I rented a car and drove up to visit some of her relatives in New York one weekend. It was a short trip, but we hadn’t gotten away in quite a while so it helped clear our minds. Unfortunately, we picked one of the hottest weekends all summer […]

Nilsa and I decided last week that we needed to get away, even for a night. So we booked a room at the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore for last Friday night. The hotel is within about three or four blocks of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, where we planned to spend sometime on Saturday before heading back […]

Last Saturday (14 July 2007), I went to listen to Tony, Tooky, and Todd play at a restaurant in Gaithersburg called Amada Amante. It was a pleasant evening and they played on the outdoor patio. The temperature was in the low 80’s and the humidity was very tolerable. Pretty amazing since this is Maryland in […]

In April 2006, I took a roll of Ilford FP4+ and HP5+ and drove through Mt. Airy photographing whatever I could find. I did expressly so that I could send the film off to dr5-chrome. If you shoot film and haven’t used dr5, you are in for a treat. It was started by a professional […]

Nilsa and I met Tooky at the Quarry House Tavern in Silver Spring, Maryland to listen to West Coast Grand and The Tony Grasso Band. I enjoyed West Coast Grand, but I just wasn’t in the mood for too much country rock. Tony’s band was much more diverse. From at traditional rock, to a funky […]

Two weeks ago, Nilsa and I met my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and niece for lunch and to visit. It was an unusually clear, dry and cool weekend in June. This is something we don’t usually get in Maryland during the summer. Hot and humid is the norm.
We met at Akbar, an Indian restaurant […]

On May 19th, the Greater Olney Civic Association held it’s annual “Olney Day’s” festival. They’ve been doing this for many years now, and among all the activities like parade, bike ride for the kids, and many others, they have a car show held on the lot of local gas station. It’s near home, doesn’t cost […]

It was a more relaxed birthday party for Charlotte this year as opposed to last year. But this was her third party in the past week so it’s understandable that it is more laid back. I found it very enjoyable this year, as this was the first year that Nilsa was along with me. The […]

One of the best Easter’s I can remember in the recent past. The weather was a little cold, but Dad put a fire on in the fireplace. Amanda, Hedy, Mom, Dad, Charlotte, Nilsa and I shared ham, salmon stuffed with crab, wild rice, salad, and ice cream cake. Of course Charlotte was Charlotte. The life […]

Here’s a couple of pictures of my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and a couple of neighbor girls trying to help Charlotte fly a kite. And as any good five year old with lots of energy and a short attention span, Charlotte was running around entertaining everybody. I grabbed this photo in one brief instance […]

Nilsa and I went over to see my parents last weekend. My Mom is trying to catalogue her glass collection and we were going to help her with the stuff she has stored in the basement. I also wanted to photograph the two Roberto Moretti Madonna statues.
Nilsa and I spent more time than we had […]

Last Sunday, Nilsa went over to her parent’s home for a birthday dinner. Steak, salmon, and other great food and company, plus the birthday cake. Here’s my girl lighting her cake. And no, I’m not going to tell you her age.

Leica MP
Leica 50mm Summilux ASPH
Fuji Neopan 1600

And suddenly everything changes. Well the new year has started off with a bang. Last Saturday (6 January) as Nilsa was on her way to work at 4:30 am, and we think she hit a patch of oil on Rt. 108 brought to the surface by the light, overnight rain. This caused her H3 to […]

It has been many years since I can say that I’ve really enjoyed Christmas, but Christmas 2006 was special. Actually, it was beyond special. This year being with my family meant more to me than I even put into words. Nilsa, the love of my life, has helped make this year and this Christmas the […]

This was the first Thanksgiving Nilsa and I spent together. Her Mom and Dad came by about mid afternoon and we had our Thanksgiving Day dinner. Here’s a few photos from our dinner. Most of what I shot came out surprisingly well considering I shot in available light with a 400 speed film. Most of […]

I’m sitting here on the couch, typing this into my trusty PowerBook thinking of what I have to be thankful for. And really, the answer is plenty. Despite the fact that my life has been in a state of flux for well over a year since I told my wife I wanted a […]