in about ten weeks i’ll be an uncle. that is, i’ll be an uncle officially. my brother is having a baby. it feels like i’ve been an uncle for a very long time. even though i don’t see my many honorary nieces and nephews very often these days, there’s a strange sort of closeness that comes from photographing someone over and over again, and watching them grow up in front of you. really, with all the kids in the hearts book, i feel a sense of responsiblity, pride and protectiveness that could only be greater if they were my actual children. although, being an honorary uncle/older brother is probably much easier. having ten kids seems quite difficult – especially now that they’re all teenagers, with some even in their early 20s.

ali is going off to calarts next year to study photography. she wrote about me on her application essay. i mean, really, what more could a proud uncle ask? for weeks now since summer break started we’ve been trying to find time to hang out. since holidays don’t mean much to me (or to most freelancers) the fourth of july seemed perfect. ali was in hollywood, house-sitting for her aunt, and taking care of the dogs. she’s 17 now, and if i were in high school ali would probably be the one i’d hang out with. though to be honest she probably wouldn’t hang out with me because i don’t have a studded vest or a mohawk. she’s such a punk rocker, i totally didn’t see that coming ten years ago. i’m sure her mom didn’t, either!

ali’s last open heart surgery happened when she was young enough to let it be just a faint memory now. she’s lucky in that regard, but also unlucky in that she’s unused to all that goes along with such things. case in point, shortly after the 4th of july she had to get a blood test at a routine doctor’s appointment, and i received many panicked messages on facebook along the lines of “max, it was nice knowing you. you’ll remember me as ali sandoval the girl who died when getting her blood taken.” followed shortly, of course, by the more relaxed: “MAX!!! i lived!!!”

below, along with more pictures from the 4th, is a short 2 minute video, and a photo of ali on the first day i met her, almost a decade ago.

growing up i would’ve said i was a dog person. really. but winona is the cat of my life. amazing to think i got her seventeen years ago, at the beginning of my senior year of high school. she’s lived with me the past twelve years straight, through dog attacks, unfriendly room-mates, two lovely girlfriends (one allergic, one as smitten with ‘nona as she was with me)  and several different apartments. once long ago, when i had a darkroom, i could’ve sworn that winona was addicted to fixer. those who know me know that i’m irrationally devoted to her, and i like her more than most people i meet. also, she depends on me for survival, which most people i meet don’t do. that kind of helps with the attachment.

now, at seventeen, winona is hanging on, in a pretty advanced stage of kidney failure. i give her 100 cc’s of saline through an IV every other day. she’s surprisingly patient with this, and i’ve been doing it for over a year. so far the veterinarian seems amazed she’s still alive and kicking. every day she makes me smile, especially on days when nothing else does. happy birthday, kiddo.

the above pic was taken with the glorious iphone 1.0, in mid august. the pictures below were taken today, on her birthday, in an attempt to do something more formal. cats are not terribly into being cooperative for studio pictures. thanks to mark miller for cat wrangling, even though it was an uphill battle. these aren’t quite what i was hoping for but i was afraid we were starting to stress her out, which is bad on the kidneys.

and my thanks, also, to the james watson bobble head doll for standing in.

yesterday (friday, august 1st) i turned 35. that seems like the last good milestone in age – at least, the last one before each birthday is met purely with regret and recriminations. of course, that’s not to say that 35 didn’t slam me head on with life-angst, but i figure i still have another four years to make good on a few things. right?

anyway, i celebrated my birthday in ways that were more reminiscent of myself twenty years ago. first we had dinner at benihana, which is something i used to do as a kid on my birthday. and secondly, since i’m extending this birthday celebration to the whole weekend, i had my picture taken with hollywood superman in front of the chinese theater. this is by far the most touristy thing i’ve ever done in my own hometown, and it’s a bit depressing to know that i even look weird when standing next to a guy in a superman suit.

tonight, mini golf.

monday, i fly to colorado for a shoot. geekery ends then, i suppose.

more legitimate photo-related updates coming soon, just as soon as the mags go to press.

a few weeks ago dylan’s mother called me to say that everyone wanted to do an update to our mirror picture from 2001 that’s in the hearts book. it turns out dylan and his family were going to be visiting mario in camarillo on memorial day and we took that as a perfect opportunity to duplicate our previous efforts. it’s funny to see the difference – amazing, and funny and strange. bill commented that it looks not so much like the kids grew up, but rather like i shrunk. mario also got some fuzzy dice and a ceiling fan. i love that dylan has roughly the same expression, and mario has roughly the same shorts! dylan had just graduated high school a few days before, mario and ali are starting their senior years of high school in the fall. i wisely lost the silly goatee, but still need a haircut, as always.

taking into account a leap year (there was only one, right?) i figure there are two thousand four hundred and eighty-five days separating these two pictures.

ali was hanging out with us, too, and all three of them were fairly engrossed in the $5000 or so worth of high end consumer electronics that mario had just received from the make a wish foundation. actually, to be fair, mario and dylan were engrossed in the giant flat screen TV and playstation 3, while ali simply text messages every fifteen seconds.

for myself it seemed a fitting way to spend memorial day. the kids signed my book, we took some pictures, we talked some about their friends from camp who’ve passed away, and the thing i was struck with is that i’ll probably – if i’m lucky – be involved with these families my whole life. i’m dumbstruck at how far we’ve all come already. i wonder what it will be like in another two thousand four hundred eighty five days?

(click here to see the pics)

a couple weekends ago i got to haul myself over to the philadelphia airport marriott to attend the Adult Congenital Heart Association’s 2008 conference. while there i got to sign books and take pictures of the conference attendees. signing books is a weird thing. i never know quite what to say; it’s too easy to fall into the impersonal and i’m always fighting the urge to write inappropriate or nonsensical things just to see if anyone’s actually paying attention.

it was an eventful trip, even before i got there. on my layover from pheonix to philly i volunteered to sit next to a woman named filomena who had pretty severe muscular dystrophy. having only flown jetblue recently on cross-country flights, i was bored without a TV at my seat, and filomena made the flight a lot more interesting. she was a great lady, and had lots of stories. she was coming back from a voters with disabilities conference in phoenix. she started getting symptoms of muscular dystrophy at age 16. first it affected her balance, then slowly spread. now, in middle age, she’s confined to a 500 pound high tech motorized wheelchair. still, she had great spirit and made the flight a whole lot of fun. it was allegedly my responsibility to help her out in the case of a crash, but luckily that didn’t prove to be necessary.

also, while i transfered planes in phoenix, it seems that my light case did not. so i was a bit panicked for a while there as southwest took about eight hours to figure out where they put all my photo gear. everything ended up all right in the end but with no apologies or acknowledgement of fault from the airline, of course. they even knocked down their baggage allowance (used to be 3 bags) so i ended up stuffing all my clothes for the weekend in my light case, too. it would’ve been highly inconvenient had it not shown up eventually.

click on the link above to get taken to a page to see all the rest of the photos. my deepest gratitude and thanks and apologies to the illustrious and talented mr. jonathan saunders for not grumbling too much when i blatantly stole his lighting rig. it’s near impossible to fly with a giant roll of backdrop paper, and his setup is the most portable thing imaginable, which is great since i’m a scrawny guy in the first place.