Two Girls in a Tree

Last Friday just before my daughter Sophie’s birthday, I received my first pair of PocketWizards. These gems allow me to fire my off-camera SpeedLite flash unit both in eTTL mode and in manual mode. I have a PocketWizard Mini TT1 transmitter and a PocketWizard Flex TT5 transceiver which just hit the market this month. I will be writing a review on the babies in a later post.

Last night, it was a well deserved girls night out for Jackie. Since Friday, I wanted to play with my new toys. As you can imagine, playtime would have to wait until we made it past my daughters birthday weekend.

When I came home late from work to free Jackie for her night out, I mentioned to Sophie that I wanted to play with my new toys. Sophie with her heart of gold is always willingly to help me or anyone in the family. She said we can do photography stuff because she had already finished her homework. Next thing I know, she had rounded up Savannah and was heading to back yard for a shoot. I scurried up stairs to get my gear. She is fantastic with her little sister. When mom is away, it is almost like having a second mom in the house. Man I love that girl!

Just to give you an idea of her heart, we decided to have a family outing at our local Crabtree Valley Mall on Sunday. The idea was to head to the Disney store to pick up our pre-ordered 70th anniversary edition of Pinocchio DVD and allow Sophie to spend some her birthday money if she wished. The next scheduled stop was “Build a Bear” where Jackie and I decided to get both of girls a bear for being such good kids over that last few months as we worked hard to get the house in order.

In the Disney store, I was teamed up with Sophie in the search for her items and Jackie was working with Savannah. You know if you allow one child to get something at the Disney store and the other needs to get something also. As my dad would put it - “We have to keep it even!” Anyway, we found a Wall-E bank that Sophie found interesting. It was the last one on the shelf, so I was in charge of carrying it and her wallet as we continued to look around. My role was clearly set as the shopping assistant.

Sophie found a few more things and asked me if she I like the Wall-E bank. I responded that it is pretty cool but she can buy anything with her money that she wants. It was important that she buys something because she likes it and not based on my opinion. She responded that she wanted to buy me that bank. I told her that she did not have to buy me the bank and I would rather her spend her money on herself. I turned to look at a few more things. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that my Sophie began to cry. She was truly disappointed that she could not buy her father a gift in the Disney Store with her new birthday money. It about broke my heart. So, needless to say, I have a (lesser expensive) brand new Mickey Mouse coffee cup that is now sitting on my desk in the office and Sophie was smiling again.

Anyway, we decided to take some shots in the tree next to my house in our backyard. This was a place that Sophie discovered a few weeks back. I wonder what my new neighbors thought about me chasing my daughters like squirrels up a tree in the back yard with my light stand, flash unit and umbrella. They might have thought we were nuts.

Some people have heard of the moving company Two Men And A Truck , I proudly present Two Girls In A Tree.

Note: For the above picture, Sophie is standing on a plastic kids picnic table just out of frame in case she needs to rescue Savannah from the tree. She called it “playing ambulance.”

For my next trick, a birthday girl in a outdoor play set.

See ya soon!