Wish List

I just chased the small fry around and tried to get her to do multiple headstands just so I could get a good shot of her trying to stand on her head with her top tumbling down over her chest.

It took me four shots and various settings to realise that the 18-200mm lens wasn't gonna cut it, even with the flash. I'd had it on for my trip to Dubai and hadn't switched it out yet. While trying to placate the little show-off, I hurriedly switched to my 50mm.

That's when I realised how much I missed the wide apertures on the 50mm. It was well worth the placating, the fending off (small fry LOVES to get a close up on what I'm doing and more importantly, wants to try her hand at it) and the fiddling.

First shot off the 50mm was a stunner and a keeper.

Hopefully it'll be posted up soon.

Now I can think of a few lenses I'd like to get my hands on for Christmas, sigh.

Sophia Shoots

In her efforts to emulate mummy, the small fry has taken to wanting to handle a camera. Yesterday she wrestled my Polaroid 680SLR out of my hands, refused to let me teach her how to use it and snapped two shots of herself. At least she pointed the camera at herself and not some random spot in space.

Today, daddy let her use the Lumix to shoot till her heart's content. She went around the apartment with camera in arms and strap hung around her neck, taking snapshots of the rooms and her beloved toys, random objects and of course, Pixel.

Her snapshots will be posted on saku taku no ki.

Enjoy!

More Mountains And Hills In Sight

I've finally gone and bought myself a flash. I decided to just spring for an SB900. Might as well. It's actually really versatile and quite fun to fiddle around with.

Then I realised that my Crumpler CANNOT fit the 50mm lens and the flash in it. Not with the camera in there as well. So now, before I can even think about getting the 17-50mm lens, I've gotta think about getting a new home for my camera gear.

Great.

This will never end.

Spot of Colour

I almost forgot about the many photos I took at a Hindu temple during one of my photog outings with the group. Not very many turned out. But there were some that I liked. This is one of them. It's a flower garland at an altar. Can't see the deity; I wanted to catch the burst of colour on the white stone.

National Day Sparks

I had my settings all done up. I had the camera pointed at the right direction with the Flyer in view at the bottom left.

And then something happened.

My settings went mysteriously awry and the camera angle shifted; instead of 5 seconds, the shutter speed had gone up to 1/5 seconds. And as I was shooting away at the beginning, I was cracking my head and wondering what was wrong.

It wasn't till the very end that I figured it out. And these are the only two shots I managed to get that are even moderately good.

Plus I lost the Flyer. Completely forgot about it.

I need to get to know my camera better.

Photo Field Trip #2: The Zoo

Hubby, Sophia, Jona and I headed to the zoo. My objective was to shoot (with a camera) the animals together with the photo group and the family's was to try to enjoy and have fun (without me, of course).

This Saturday it was speed priority setting, what with trying to shoot animals. I still don't think I have it down pat but oh well, trial and error, as they say.

The tigers were sleepy at nine in the morning. It was as if they knew we'd be there and chose to showcase their backs to us. We spent 30 mins there and, failing to get any good head on shots, decided to try our luck with the baboons.

We got stuck at the baboon enclosure and never moved on. Let's just say there's much to glean from their behaviour and antics. I managed a couple of good shots out of the myriad I took. We'll see what the rest of the class thinks.

Two and a half hours can only get you so far at the zoo, which is a pity since it was a nice shady day. It was muggy though and by the time I met up with the rest of the family at the Splash Safar show, which was right after leaving the baboon enclosure, Sophie was already hot, sticky and sweaty. She apparently did not want to step into the water play area, opting for the playground instead. And to pacify her, daddy had bought her a Sesame Street ABC bus.

At least we got a picture together with Philip the sea lion, star of the Splash Safari show.

Photo Field Trip #1: Bukit Batok Nature Reserve

Objective: to shoot using Aperture priority setting.

Result: lots of cursing from me. Why?

1. The biggest culprit: my damn flimsy tripod. Now I know why the pros use tripods that cost into the thousands. Sigh. At least the rest of the newbies had tripods as flimsy as mine.
2. Because of said tripod, most shots turned out blurry thus prompting more curses.
3. Said tripod also took loads of manouvering to get the right angles and height.
4. Being short sucks! Especially if most of your subjects are situated rather high (the low-lying flowers were being hogged).
5. After 9am, it was so hot that I was burning up from standing in the sun trying to shoot leaves.

I managed a few good shots among the many I took. Could have been better, though.