Football

I haven't had time to blog a lot lately, but thought I would share a picture I took this last week of Brian. His Grandma and Grandpa Marchant watched him play last week. He scored three touchdowns that week. This week he scored one touchdown. He said to me after. Dad, I don't know if I will have a better game than when Grandma and Grandpa watched me, I am glad they got to see that game.

What a good kid, and a good football player. He loves scoring touchdowns, I wonder how he will fill about football when he plays tackle and he isn't given an opportunity to score because they need that big body protecting someone.

Catching Up

 

It has been almost two months since I last blogged.  Needless to say, things got crazy for a little bit.  I will do my best to sum up the past two months with some pictures and captions. 

It seems crazy to announce, but spring soccer is over (go figure, its only summer now).  Brian had a good time this year, but I think he struggled with his team a little bit.  I think Brian got pulled from alot more games this year as a gesture of mercy to the other team.  He was usually only allowed to play offense for the first half of the game, and he either had to sit out or play defense or goalie after that.  There were a few games where the other team would try and come back, and then he would get put back in.  But not too many.  I really enjoyed taking pictures this season with my new camera.  Sports photography is amazing to me.  It’s where I was initially inspired and prompted to start taking pictures again, and I think I will always be drawn to the thrill of stopping the action, and showing athletic prowess with a still image.  Here is a final shot of Brian playing to end the season

My last blog entry was about the new addition to our family with pet fish.  Wow, what a learning experience.  If our fish don’t feel loved, then they never will.  When we bought our tank, we purchased about 25 fish to go in the tank.  All was well for the first day, and then our fish started dying.  We struggled for the first month and a half.  No one told us that we bought to many fish, but we overpopulated the tank.  There was not enough good bacteria in the water to kill the ammonia from the fish poop and food that went into the gravel.  This basically made our water poisonous to the fish.  We lost about half of our fish over the first two weeks.  Some of our favorite fish died.  But we still had our strong 12 fish, and they kept on tickin.  We ended up getting a disease called “Ick” in the tank, and had to medicate the tank to save what we had.  But after countless water tests and trips to the pet store, our water has now been deemed “perfect” by some of our favorite Pet Smart employees.  We added 3 cleaner fish to the tank and lost one, but I think he was just stressed by being in the new tank.  The other two cleaners are doing their job, and we have 2 baby fish that were born in the tank.  The water can’t be that bad if it can support a brand new baby fish.  Fish in a tank are very hard to photograph.  They move so fast, and you can’t use a flash or it will reflect on the glass.  Here are a few pictures of the fish I took.

Moving on, we have had some family activities since I last blogged.  One of them was the baby blessing of a new addition to the Marchant Family, McKenna Monteneres.  I was attempting to be a baby photographer on this shot.

The school year came to an end this year, and with it came lots of school programs and awards.  Brian and Kallie do such a good job in school.

(Below: Here is Brian playing in the 3rd grade recorder program.  He practiced for months before this day.  I know they worked a lot more on playing the songs than I did when I was in Elementary School.)

(Below: At the end of the year awards assembly, Kallie was awarded a Cougar Scholar award.  I think there are two students picked from each class for this award.  We are proud of how hard she worked.)

(Below: Brian received an award for his age group for speed and accuracy while typing.  This must be from all of his searching on the internet for Utah Jazz stuff, and Call of Duty videos on youtube)

As the weather has gotten warmer the kids have been outside more and more.  They will play all day if they are allowed too.  He is a snapshot I grabbed about two weeks ago.

I have continued to work on my photography all summer long.  I have logged in over 6000 pictures on my new camera.  I am continuing to try new things, and love it when I can get people willing to pose for me.  My goal is to take pictures that people would want to hang in their home.  One of the most rewarding experiences is seeing a picture I have been taken in printed form and in a frame.  Eventually I would like to take pictures professionally, and want to make sure I am good enough to meet peoples expectations on what they are paying for.  Until I get to that point, I will keep experimenting and working to get better.  Here is a shot from the Skyway Golf Course here in Tremonton.

I was grateful for the opportunity I had to take pictures of my new nephew, Nathan (Brian and Michelle’s son).  It was a compliment that Brian and Michelle wanted me to come and take pictures.  Nathan is one cool dude, and his hair is awesome.  He has a full head of hair, and I love it.  Nathan has similar eyes to his brother, Camden.  They pull me in, because they are amazing.  Generally when I look at peoples eyes there is color and then there is the black pupil.  These brothers have a small ring of white in between the color and the pupil and I think it is amazing.  Here are a few of Nathan, and I couldn’t resist adding one of his brother!

(Below: this is not a “posed” picture, Camden’s motor was going 200 mph while he played with his cousins, This shot just worked out, I had about .5 seconds to grab it.)

And now for the busiest part of the last few months!  Dan and Kristin are married!  Kristin was a very brave soul and trusted me with some of the most important pictures of her entire life.  This is the first wedding I have ever photographed, and hopefully it is just the beginning.  Kristin had a lot of people willing to take pictures for her, so I was fortunate.  Kristin had a friend take her engagement pictures.  I think they turned out amazing.  I took the bridals for them.  Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day.  I don’t think I slept at all the night before these pictures, I had butterflys so bad you would have thought I was going to play in the superbowl. 

 

 

Kristin had an uncle who was supposed to take pictures on the actual wedding day.  But I certainly wasn’t going to leave my camera home.  My mother-in-law wanted me there taking pictures so I did.  It was a good experience for me to shoot pictures when the light was less than desirable for pictures, and I am really happy with what I ended up with for the day.  My all time favorite is the next one, I loved hanging out with my sisters, it was great to see them.  For this picture I had just finished taking pictures of Dan and Kristin as they walked out of the temple, when both Charisse and Sarah yelled at me, and started striking poses.  Love this picture.

Here are a few of the other wedding day shots.  I like this next one because of the suprise on Kristin’s face while Dan pretended he was dropping her, and Brandon’s  reaction (far right).

Standard cheering picture

Uncle Dan didn’t let the nieces and nephews feel left out either.  The kids are really excited to have Kristin as their Aunt.  Welcome to the family Kristin!

At the reception I tried my hand at a little detail photography.  Kristin was so nice to put pictures from her Bridal session I took on every table and on all the decorations.

I took over 700 pictures at the wedding, the wedding breakfast and the Orem reception.  It is so hard to pick which ones to share.

This last weekend, Dan and Kristin had their open house in Elwood.  At this event, I knew I was the assigned photographer, I barely slept the night before.  This was by far the most challenging shoot for me yet.  The reason being was that everything was inside.  I have not advanced in the business enough to have a turbo flash for my camera.  Generally the result of using the on camera flash is no color on the person that is being photographed, and a major dark background.  So all of these are indoors without flash which is a bit tricky.  I think they turned out pretty good cinsidering the challenges and my skill level.  I tried to get all the standard shots, and then I went for candid views of the guests.  I looked through my wedding pictures and I have about 5 pictures of the people that came.  And my memory is getting a bit hazy, hopefully Dan and Kristin appreciate seeing all the people that came to see them.

 

 

It has been a very busy couple of months.  But we have been very blessed, and have been given great opportunities, talents and blessings.  Here are a few shots of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple to close things out.  Hopefully I haven’t drawn this out too long.  We are all still here and still doing great.

New Member’s of the family coming

Scroll down I went on a blog spree today so there are more blogs

Well the news is not as exciting as most of you would probably like it to be. We are happy with our two kids and aren’t looking for more. Thats why we ruled the thought of a dog. But we are getting pets. Some people may say that fish aren’t pets, but I do. Well over the week we have gotten our fish tank setup. First with the marvelous help of (Brother) Brian, building a stand, to buying the tank, to picking what gravel we wanted and then aquascaping our tank (that is seriously the word used online). We have all been involved in the process of getting the tank setup and ready to go. I have learned so much researching our new activity.

Step One – Find the tank and an appropriate place in your home for the tank to sit. The tank cannot be in drafty areas or in direct sunlight. Sunlight promotes algae growth and makes it hard for fish to live there. The larger the tank the better chance your fish have to survive. This is because there is more surface area for air to enter the water. A narrow tank that is tall, is going to have a harder time than a longer tank that is shorter.

Step Two – Aquascape your tank. Fish need room to swim. Some breeds need more room than others. Fish need places to hide or they get stressed out. Thats why they need caves, plants or decorations to hide behind in.

It is also important two provide surface disruption of the water. If the water does not break than air has a hard time entering the water. When a bubble pops, or there are ripples in the surface, the nitrogen is released from the water and oxygen enters the water. Generally a filter that flows into the tank like a waterfall can cause enough surface disruption to keep healthy fish, but better safe than sorry, and it won’t hurt the fish to have more

(Lesson learned: it is a major pain to bury airlines under gravel after the tank is filled with water)

Step Three – Patience. Fish cannot live in water out of the sink. Special conditioner has to be added to the water that deactivates chlorine, flouride and other man made chemicals. Generally a tank should run for 48 hours with the water conditioner inside it to ensure the water is healthy to add new pets. Also depending on the type of fish you want, you have to make sure the water is at the correct temperature (We are getting freshwater tropical fish. We chose to get community fish that are not aggressive to other fish, their water needs to be 72 to 82 degrees warm)

Step Four – Add fish. This is the stage we are at! We each have our favorite fish that we want in our aquarium. I am going to try and get three kinds of fish, top swimmers, middle swimmers and bottom swimmers. This way when you look at the aquarium there are fish all over. Also I want color, I love the vibrant colors of fish. Brian has fallen in love with Marble Molly’s. I like swordtails. Natalie and Kallie like the rainbow colored fish. I want to get a couple of each so that they can swim in schools and have buddies. Hopefully it will turn out wonderful.

So here are some pictures and videos so you can see what I am talking about.

(Below: Here is a pic of the house we put in the center of our tank. We knew the wheel would turn when we plugged air into it, but were pleasantly suprised when the chimney started bubbling as well)

(Below: Originally our plan was going to be having a large volcano instead of the house, like Mt. Juanahuckaloogee on Finding Nemo, but we elected to get the house and have a small volcano instead. I love the Volcano we got.)

And last but not least, here are a couple videos of the tank in action. I posted one on facebook, but these are higher quality vids.

Untitled from Andy Marchant on Vimeo.

And here is another video a bit zoomed out

Untitled from Andy Marchant on Vimeo.

So tomorrow is the big day, we may not be getting a dog, but we should be adding about 20 members to our family. Hopefully all goes well.

Soccer 4-27-11

 

I worked…… again, so I was only able to make it too two quarters of Brian’s game.  And it really freaks people out when a cop shows up with a camera.  It certainly draws attention.  I wasn’t able to shoot a lot of pictures, but I was able to get some good shots, all four of them that I am going to share are from one sequence.  I set the camera to 4 pictures a second and this what I came up with.

   

Did I mention, I love sports photography!!!!

1st Grade Program

Yesterday, April 27th, was Kallie’s 1st grade program. It was the exact same program that Brian performed when he was in first grade. I am proud of Kallie for how much she got into the program.

(Below: Here is a pic of Kallie singing with the other kids. Top row in the middle for those looking)

(Below: Sorry for the shaky video, it was zoomed out all the way and I was hand holding the camera. Here is one of the songs.)

Untitled from Andy Marchant on Vimeo.

(Below: And here is a video of Kallie's Part)

Untitled from Andy Marchant on Vimeo.

Easter

 

Another Holiday has passed.  Kallie is such a holiday junkie.  She loves and celebrates anything special.  She went all our for Saint Patricks Day, so Easter was no different.  Carrots were left out for the Easter Bunny and all.  The movie HOP, that I reviewed a while ago also had a lot to do with everything.  It sure did make the kids imaginations run wild.  We also had some special talks about the true meaning of Easter also.  They answered all the questions right and understood the meaning of easter.  But just like when I was a boy, I really didn’t care about the true meaning and more about the candy.  So here are the kids enjoying their easter baskets.  I won’t be posting this picture anywhere for professional critic, but at least the moment was captured. 

(Below: Brian is very excited about his “HOP” book, Kallie got a beautiful Zebra print with Yellow accent dress.  The hat goes with the outfit. Unfortunately I had to work on easter so I wasn’t able to get pictures of the dress yet)

Miracle Worker

 

Over the past few months the kids go onto a “we need a pet” kick.  The kids have begged and begged to have a dog.  They have wandered the block we live on selling anything they thought would raise any money for a dog.  Natalie and I were very specific about the dog we were going to get.  But the dog was a very expensive dog.  Well the dull roar of the kids turned into a deafening thunder and I started to feel very bad about getting a dog.  It was making me so sick that I finally had to tell the kids that I didn’t feel like it was right to get a dog.  The mere thought of grooming, vet bills, shots and food made it even worse.

I talked to Natalie and let her know my thoughts and let her know that if the kids wanted fish then I would be ok with that.  I have always wanted a fish tank.  I have always found fish tanks to be extremely relaxing and beautiful.  We talked to the kids and they were all for getting a fish tank.  Well the deafening thunder was still overwhelming and so Natalie and I started looking into getting a tank.

We talked to a friend of mine that has a fish tank, and found a great deal on the tank.  We got a 55 gallon tank.  Well you can’t put a fish tank on the floor, and all of the places we looked were charging anywhere from $150 to $800 for a fish tank stand.  So I called (Brother) Brian, and explained the predicament.  I let him know that the kids were chomping at the bit. 

Brian was awesome, he dropped everything he had and made a miracle happen.  Two days later he was at the house and building a tank stand for us.

Brian had some walnut wood that he was able to use and he built us the perfect stand for our tank.  It is absolutely beautiful.

Thanks so much Brian for dropping everything and helping us out.  It turned out great.

(Below: Here is the stand that Brian built)