Children.

They really are beautiful, especially this one - she's mine. Our second is due in just a few weeks.

Camera: Nikon D40x, Nikkor 18-55mm lens, ISO 1600, exposure 1/6 at f / 5.0, focal length 40mm. Shot in color, developed in Lightroom.

This one is a friend of my precious, on a preschool field trip to an art exhibit.

Camera: HP Photosmart C945, ISO 100, exposure 1/170 at f / 2.8, focal length 7.6mm

On magicians and their secrets.

It's not cool to give them away.

Camera: HP Photosmart M407

The tulip.

There is nothing so quintessesntially Dutch, it seems, as the tulip. It is perhaps outdone in its Dutchness only by the wooden shoe or the windmill. And yet these iconic flowers actually originated in Turkey, and were imported to the Netherlands en masse during the tulip craze of the 17th century. What I discovered about them this morning, staring at an orange (really, really Dutch) bunch on my dining table, is that their insides are so very interesting.

Camera: Nikon D40x, Nikkor 18-55mm lens, ISO 400, exposure: 1/25 at f / 5.6, focal length: 52mm

New toys.

I recently 'acquired' a bunch of fantastic new paint/image editing software, but my hands-down new favorite is definitely Adobe's newest little nugget, Lightroom. It's chock-full of handy little tools that make organizing a digital photography collection quick and easy so, as they put it, you can spend less time behind the computer and more time behind the camera. I couldn't be more delighted. It imports without hassle, features drag-and-drop organization, and includes some simple but spiffy development filters. Gone are the days of the darkroom - welcome to the age of the Lightroom!