I did want to share another view of (most of) 2011, below is a collection of photos that I put together showing Matthew (or MG) from 1 day old (upper right) to 1 year old (lower left) in roughly 1 month intervals.

Matthew Greg Lato - Birth to 1 Year Old

As luck would have it, tonight my wife found the stocking cap that Matthew came home from the hospital in (featured in 1 day old photo)…wow, hard to believe that ever fit his current big head!

Amazingly, a good half of the photos above (and of all the photos I took of him) were taken on the iPhone. Not sure if that makes me a bad photographer parent or not; since you trade accessibility of the iPhone for the quality and control of the big glass.

So two photographic New Year’s resolutions for me:

1. Focus on taking picture more regularly. There are some big gaps in time between these images as the rest of life got in the way of photography.
2. Focus on hiring another photographer for family portraits. It’s too darn hard to try and be on both sides of the camera at the same time when dealing with children; not worth the risk!  :-)

Each of my 12 favorites below became a favorite as it representas a special moment, unique scene, or most successful translation of what I saw in my mind’s eye into the final photo as well as an attempt to show a wider range of photographic subject matter.  Enjoy!

(You can also review my past favorites from 2010, 2009, 2008, and 2007)

Quail Lake in Southern California's Angels National Forest (January, 2011)

Sunrise at Keys View, Joshua Tree National Park, California. (January, 2011)

Breaking light from a storm near the California-Nevada Border. (January, 2011)

Read the backstory for the above photo…

Petroglyph Canyon at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. (February, 2011)

Fremont Cottonwood trees along the Virgin River at Zion National Park, Utah. (February, 2011)

Sunset near Zion Canyon entrance at Zion National Park, Utah. (February, 2011)

Window abstract at de Young Museum in San Francisco, California. (March, 2011)

Visitors at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, California. (March, 2011)

Halema'uma'u Crater in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, Kona, Hawai'i. (April, 2011)

Read the backstory for the above photo…

Carousel at Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley, California. (December, 2011)

Read the backstory for the above photo…

Sunset through sea arch at Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California. (December, 2011)

Sunset through Big Sur Portal at Pfeiffer Beach, Big Sur, California. (December, 2011)

If any of the above photos spoke to you as well, you can click on the photo to order Art Prints.  As always, I appreciate your support of my photography!

Note: this yearly ritual started thanks to my friend Jim Goldstein and his anual Your Best Photos of the Year blog project.  Huge thanks to Jim for his continued time and effort to run this blog project year after year!  If you found this posting via his project, please take the time to subscribe to the blog feed or follow me on your social network of choice (see links in the sidebar).

Cumulus cloud over desert mountain range bathed in breaking light from a storm near the California-Nevada Border. (Greg A. Lato / latogaphoto.com)

We’ve all had photos that were the result of the universe putting us in the right spot at the right time. This photo is a close runner up in that category.

I was meandering my way through the Mojave desert heading toward Las Vegas and kept playing tag with sporadic rain storms.  Which made for a great day of photography with the wonderful breaking light from the passing storm clouds.  I was finally making my way over toward I-15 for the final drive into Las Vegas and had two routes: one which cut over to the Interstate sooner, and one that would have me merge onto the interstate right before the California-Nevada state line.

I chose the first route.  I chose wrong.

For those who have never done this drive, I-15 climbs up a mountain range and then starts a 10-15 mile descent down to Primm Nevada which is just across the border. My chosen route put me on the interstate well before said mountain range.  The route not chosen would have put me on the interstate right at the summit of that mountain range.

As I crested the summit of that mountain range on I-15, this wonderful breaking light on the next mountain range and huge Cumulus cloud greeted me off in the distance (photo above).  Off to the left of the mountain range was Primm, NV (first town in Nevada and essentially a small oasis of casino high rises in the middle of the desert) bathed in breaking light with darkness all around it.  And I just drove past the summit which provided the best vantage point to photograph the scene; the next exit was something like 10 miles away and about 1500 feet below me.

There was no way I was going to be able to descend the summit, turn around, and drive back up and still have the same light.  So,  I pulled off at that next exit and was able to come home with the photograph above.

You win some.  You lose some.  Sometimes you land in between.

(Technical Note: Taken with the front camera on the iPhone, which caused the lower quality video.)

Little boy and adult man standing side by side watching a carousel at Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley, California. (Greg A. Lato / latogaphoto.com)

Tilden Regional Park, in the hills above Berkeley, features a functioning carousel that gets all decked out for the holidays.  Went for a short visit with the family last weekend and caught this classic moment…somethings are timeless, like the joy of watching a carousel.

For the record, the little guy is my son. And I have no idea who the big guy is–it’s not me, I’m not good enough to be on both sides of the camera at the same time!  Not sure which was scarier (as a parent): how fearless MG was walking through such a crowded place or how the gentleman standing next to him hardly even noticed he was there…

MG is one of the biggest reasons things have been so quiet here on the blog.  Where has the last 16 months gone?  Most of my photo time this year has been with him and been enjoying every minute of it.

A sidewalk winds off toward the distant rising sun at Keys View, Joshua Tree National Park, California.

Back in February I drove down to Las Vegas for a business meeting via Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave Desert.  After 8 months, I think that these photos have properly aged…  :-)

The best part of Keys View at day break in the winter is that you are usually alone to enjoy the view.

This weekend was Matthew’s first birthday.  So there was a lot of thinking about the past year.  It’s amazing how little time you have after work; keeping him fed, changed, and out of trouble; dealing with the other necessities of daily life; and trying to spend some time with your spouse.

I had the idea for this video after the first month with Matthew.  I filmed the video segments last year in October and used the holiday weekend to finally get around to producing the video.  (So that makes this a special Monday Morning Sunday Morning Short ). I have to apologize for the slight audio hum, I didn’t realize how much interference the baby monitor created with my microphone and I did my best to remove it in production…but I couldn’t get rid of it entirely.

As I sit back and think about how little photography I’ve been able to get done over the past year, I’d love to know any tricks or secrets that other photographers learned once they had kids…please share in the comments.

Back in April, the Mrs and I were able to get a few days away from family life for a trip to Kona, Hawaii. While this trip wasn’t a photography focused trip, we did have a few days to ourselves and were able to make it to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  As we drove around the Big Island toward Hilo, we could see that the higher elevations at the center of the island were covered with clouds.  As we started our ascent from Hilo to the park entrance, the clouds and VOG (volcanic originating gas) got thicker, by the time we arrived at the park you had limited visibility.

We both were hoping to see the Kilauea Caldera but it appears that the weather wasn’t going to cooperate.  Following the advice of one of the Park Rangers, we headed down to the coast to catch sunset and then back up to the crater in hopes of seeing the red glow at night.  As we arrived at the Jaggar Museum and walked toward the lookout over the crater, I thought we were back in San Francisco.  The fog was so thick that you couldn’t see 20 feet in front of you!

Lucky for us the museum was still open.  We popped in and learned more about the history of the crater and watched an amazing thermal webcam of the crater for about 20 minutes.  As we walked out the museum doors, we were both shocked that there was no fog anymore, it had completely disappeared, the near full moon was showing thru the thin clouds, and there in front of us was the glowing red vent of the Halema’uma’u Crater!

Volcanic Gas Plume from Halema'uma'u Crater in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, Kona, Hawai'i. (Greg A. Lato / latogaphoto.com)

Of course, we all know what I did…grabbed the camera gear from the car and turned the Mrs. into a photography widow for the next hour. As you stood watching the crater, the glow from the lava would get brighter and dimmer as the lava would rise or lower within the vent.  Between my own photos, I also ended up teaching an impromptu night time photography class for all the other visitors who were trying to photograph the spectacle. The German couple who just bought their new camera 2 days before leaving on their trip was much appreciative of that.  As was the gentleman with the the Wounded Warrior Project group that ended up with a few great photos for the solders to use as mementos of the trip.

Another great example of the core tenant of landscape photography…the weather changes, so don’t be afraid to wait it out for a photograph. Sometimes, the wait is worth it.

(This photo is part of my new Hawaii Volcanoes NP gallery where it can be purchased as an Art Print or licensed for stock usage.)

Pedestrians and Palm Tree seen through window at de Young Museum in San Francisco, California.

The past month or so has been more hectic than usual.  In retrospect 2010 was so busy that lots of projects got dropped by the side of the road.  So I’ve been busy driving around and picking them up and finishing them off in the limited free time available now that family life is in full swing.  And as the silence here on the blog indicates, most of these projects were not photography related.  I’m starting to see a light ahead which I hope is the end of the tunnel…

In the mean time, I was able to swing by San Francisco’s de Young museum for Bouquets to Art 2011 recently.  I was able to check out the Mrs’ floral design piece which has been getting so much media attention as well as photograph a number of other floral designs.  And I spotted the interesting scene presented above as we were leaving the museum.  There is something about museums that always open my eyes to abstract photography opportunities…

Last weekend we were experiencing the same thing, a winter storm was rolling across the Bay Area as I headed to Tiburon for a friends birthday party. Having camera in hand to capture the fun of the evening, I also capture the changing weather conditions of the evening. The following two images were photographed only 90 minutes apart from the same location.

Stormy San Francisco Skyline during the end of a Winter Storm as seen from Tiburon.

Tiburon Docks under a full moon after a winter storm passed with the distant San Francisco Skyline seen across the Bay.

The first photo was as the last storm clouds moved through and I zoomed in to 70mm to focus on the San Francisco skyline.  The second photo was after the storm had passed and the full moon could be seen with some scattered high clouds and I had zoomed out to 24mm to capture the entire scene. It was pure luck that I got the boat leaving the port…didn’t realize it until after I took a sequence of 4 photos).

Don’t be afraid of the weather.  The best time for landscape or location photography is during the transition periods of storms.  Get out there and photograph the magic…