Plenty of Kids Pictures

Jocie takes a sip of water as she waits at the fair for her older siblings to get balloon animals and swards made

A side view of Jocie taking a walk

Partial Jocie

Another version of Jocie taking a sip of water (plain black and white)

Joey sits relaxing and hiding from Daddy

Lost in thought

The superstar duo (the expressions on their faces made me think that they were up to something... probably conspiring to save the world... or at least I would hope that was what they were up to...)

Another shot of the duo

Joey and Jess look on as balloon creations are crafted before their very eyes

A side of Jocie

Sad faced Jessamyn... for some unknown reason

Joey gazes around while going on a hay ride at the Portage Apple Fest

Jessamyn waiting for her face painting session

Joey sports his fashionable "Truck" face painting

A Weekend with the Kids

Joey using his tongue during a moment of extreme concentration while spinning a whirlygig in the yard

"See Mom, my hand is really dirty!"

Joey and Jess compare their characters on the bathroom mirror: Jess a princess, Joey a vampire.

How many babies in this picture?

Jocie and Jess lay in Daddy's spot in the bed as they watch early morning TV surrounded by Jocie's babies.

A Serious Day of Play

The Girls at Play

Jessamyn and Sisters

This is one of those shots that to me, as a photographer, I'm amazed that I did from begining to end. I had seen this look a feel before, but never visualized it in creation. I knew at the point that I snapped the series of pictures that what I had was going to be amazing, I just didn't know I was going to end up with this.

This is a very adult shot of our four year old Jessamyn. I love the intensity in her hair and the overexposed skin tones. This massive contrast is what I was hoping to portray in this image of her.

A classic vintage feel treatment resulted in this image titled 'Sisters'

Taking some time to smell the flowers along the way...

A "sister powered" locomotion for Joey...

My beautiful and glowing wife... :)

J&J

As much as Joey likes Star Wars, I must admit that he is starting to look more and more like Mark Hammel's character "Luke" - something Joey would be very happy to know since that is his favorite character.

Jocie sits in a salon reading an 'In Style' magazine... this girl is really picking up on style at a young age.

Jocie is the only one who will play with me

After looking back at some of the most moving pictures of the kids that I've done recently, I realize that I'm very heavy on the side of Jocie. Being a bit concerned, I thought back about all of the photo shoots and why she is the only subject in most of them.

The answer, as the title of this article reflects, is that Jocie is the only one who will spend any time with me. The reason being because Joey and Jess are often busy playing with their friends and are nowhere to be found when I'm marching around with camera in hand.

On rare opportunities, I'm able to cordon off one of the two of them and try some individual shots (Jess is more agreeable in this regard than Joey), but for the most part... they're busy.

Soon I know that Jocie too will be doing her own thing with her group of friends, but, for the moment, she continues to be 'Subject #1'.

So, let's enjoy the time we have left... in short order, I'll have another beautiful Pike daughter to chase with my entourage of camera equipment and post here about...

jp

More Of Jocie

Kiss that frog!

Lets climb a tree!


Jocie taking a ride as a dump truck's payload

Looking Up

Just being Cute!!!

A sunset face!

Kalamazoo Flooded!

I've been trying to stay away from posting general local news on our personal site, but, this event is too important not to post.

The remnants of hurricane Ike passed through Kalamazoo over the weekend and resulted in 72 hours of non-stop rain and dropped between 7 - 10 inches into an already saturated basin. The result has been massive flooding of low lying areas and evacuations of large portions of downtown.

A house on Lake street sits just above the water level, but most of the basements are already full of water and power has been cut to the area so the chance of electrical fire could be minimized.

Three life jackets are wrapped around a tree in defiance of the rising water levels.

The aptly named "Water Street" is submerged due to flooding.

The crosswalk at Burdick and Crosstown under six inches of water.

A defiant Jeep plows through flooded Burdick Street.

The Kalamazoo City buildings are surrounded by flooding. The jail had to be evacuated and many offices closed down due to the flooding.

This house on Jackson Court is completely flooded.

Jackson Court

A Southwesterly view of Crosstown Parkway at Portage Road

A sign in the parking lot of National City Bank on Westnedge indicates where customers should park their vehicles.

A park bench surrounded by flood waters is no longer an accommodating rest spot on Westnedge Ave.

A North East view of Crosstown Parkway from Westnedge Ave

A tow truck pulls a flooded vehicle from the flood waters on Vine Street at Crosstown Parkway with Bronson Hospital in the background.

An ironic shot of Gordon Water surrounded by flood waters.

A Comstock park on the Kalamazoo river saw rising flood waters as a dam release at 5:00pm drove water levels even higher.