The theme of this summer's family get-together is "Grandma and Grandpa Friedl's grandchildren", though I've tended to frame it from Anthony's point of reference with posts like "Conflagration of Cousins" and "More Cousins 'n Such". Six of the grandchildren have been featured in posts during the last two weeks, but one remains, Grandchild #6½, due at the end of November. He or she will Anthony's sixth cousin, and will be Uncle Mikey and Aunt Chickee's #3, after four-year-old Grace and two-year-old Luke.

I wanted the as-yet-unnamed cousin to be represented in my posts, so I asked Chickee to pose for [...]

The other day's post about all of Anthony's cousins getting together for the first time started with a photo titled "Luke's Toes". I really like it, but it's Luke's eyes that are most amazing. Like most toddlers, his eyes gaze around to whatever his mind is paying attention to at the moment (which is not, to a parent's consternation, generally what the parent wants him to pay attention to). But when Luke decides to fix his gaze on you, wow, what eyes. Arresting!

Today is Luke's birthday. Happy Birthday, little buddy!

The picture above is a fairly tight crop from [...]

After our visit yesterday to Kyoto's Konzou Temple, Anthony and I headed all the way across Kyoto, around some small mountains, and into Otsu City to play in the park with his friend Gen. They have a great park across from their place that we've visited many times.

Gen's little sister, Tamaki-chan, has a very important quality that every child should have: she likes me. Even though her Daddy had to wake her up from a long nap and she was a bit pouty, her puzzling like of me allowed her to put up with me and my camera.

She [...]

Continuing from yesterday's post, Japan's Coming of Age Day Holiday Spectacle, here are some portrait-type shots I was able to get. Let me reiterate, though, that I was scrambling to get anything, having gotten there and hour and a half after the ceremonies had ended, and didn't have time to scout locations that would give me both a good background and steady stream of photographic fodder. So, I got what I could, where I could, when I could.

I had noticed a sliver of light from the setting sun make its way between buildings, and saw this girl approaching, so [...]

More pictures from Kevin and Yoko Parrington's wedding.

Kevin is the youngest of 10 kids, and – according to the "life history" that he wrote about himself for the reception guests – the cutest of them all. Not all his family could make it to Japan for the wedding, so I thought I'd publish a few more pics right away, for their benefit...

Their time was divided pretty evenly between posing for photos and other stuff (where "other stuff" encompasses random little things like actually getting married, visiting with guests, cutting the cake, etc.). There was a lot of posing.