Brother from Another Planet

Staying with my brother is so fun. His wife and kid are out of town, so I had a wonderful time just eating, talking, watching Crank Yankers, and walking around the neighborhood with him. Of course Doug had to work, so I spent a lot of time lounging with the baby.

I was looking at some of his wonderful photos (he's a professional) and he inspired me to use my photographer's eye a bit more when I snap photos. He gave me a few juicy tips. How about this one for portraits: When he's setting up for a portrait photo shoot, he chats with the person and watches the person's body language as he's getting ready. When he notices a good, natural position, he tells them "Hold it right there" -- and of course they move. Then he reminds them what they were doing (say standing with their arms folded across their chest) and ask them to strike the pose again. Since its a natural position, they feel comfortable and the photo looks good.


Doug said since he's a professional photographer, noone ever takes photos of him, so I though I would catch him in action.

Here's Doug doing an interesting project -- to drain water off of his backyard, which floods in the winter. He's laying pipe, so to speak, (isn't that a term for taking a poo, too?) to divert the water that both runs off his roof and accumulates in his backyard. The project involves perforated pipe buried in the backyard, covered with gravel, a porous fabric, then topped with dirt which flows out to the street. Its a pretty ingenious way of moving the water along, and used by a lot of his neighbors.