As today is Boy’s Day in Japan, we wanted to do something fun with Louie. There’s a small zoo aimed at young children not far from us. We’d never been and were pleasantly surprised. Louie enjoyed waving at people, which is his new thing. The only dodgy moment was when a cow behind a fence came a bit too close for Louie’s liking and caused a moment of panic.

I took Louie’s US passport photo a few months ago. Last weekend I took a new one for his Japanese passport. He was able to sit up in his high chair for this one now that he’s nine months old. Before I had him lying down on a piece of white paper.

Of course, this isn’t his actual passport photo, but it was a more interesting one from the session.

I’ve got much faster at setting up to take photos with studio lighting. Most of the time my first photo has perfect exposure and lighting, as was true in this case. I did only use two lights for this because I wanted to keep it simple — one on Louie and one on the white background.

Most of my photos are now either of products or of Louie and/or Kaori. It’s because when you’re an amateur you photograph what’s around you. Professionals can plan and take time to create the photos they want. I mostly work and look after my family, so these are the things I take photos of. Unless you count “administrative photos” like this one I took yesterday. It’s of an antique mahogany cabinet I want to sell.

I’m still learning new things every week and feel that I’ve progressed a lot in the last year. This week, I learned how to make selections in Photoshop with the pen tool and then cut them out. I also learned how to dodge and burn in Photoshop. My Photoshop skills are quite basic and I want to change that this year.

Most of the time Louie is a kiss kiss fish, but this morning when we went for breakfast at a local restaurant, he was a pout pout fish.

He has reason. He has a little cold (again). It’s not so bad, though. He has a runny nose and a minor cough, and he’s a bit of a koala baby (clingy). He’s got most of his normal energy and he’s even more adorable for being a little clingy.

Mummy came to the rescue and gave Louie a little comfort.

The weather’s warmed up and we went to Carmel for the first time this year. We had breakfast at our favourite little breakfast place where Louie played with a couple of rescued greyhounds. Then we went to the beach.

Compared to past trips to Carmel, this one was definitely all about Louie. At eight months, he needs constant attention. Add a dog to the equation and even a day trip becomes a lot of management with no relaxation. It was still nice to get out though.

Taking photos was a run-and-gun affair. The direct sun combined with a baby who never stops moving and no time to set up meant instinctive shooting rather than thoughtful shooting. I used an on-camera flash to fill in the sun’s shadows on the beach and also to add a little pop under the tree shade in the park.

Louie loved playing with the sand.

His stick was a great find.

But Sakura had to dive away when things got a bit too crazy.

It was important from time to time to suck on Mummy’s Lulu Lemon zipper pull.

After a wander around the shops we made it to the park for lunch.

Yep, he’s under there having a snack.

And the Magic Milk finally put him out so we could catch our breath for a few minutes.

Then it was play time at the park — especially with socks for some reason.

And just to prove that we really were at the ocean, here’s my only photo that shows it. Kaori packing up her Mummy backpack with Sakura patiently waiting for us.

Louie is crawling around at high speed and has to be rescued from some kind of danger about every three minutes. He’s such a fun bundle of adorableness.