I needed to get further away from her. So I stood on a chair. She thought Daddy standing on a chair ws a strange thing to see.

These are all with a faster shutter - 1/500 s - but otherwise the same as the previous "overexposed breakfast" pictures (ISO 1600, f/1.8, 50mm lens, no flash)

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Today I was looking after The Girl. After a couple of weeks not wearing a nappy to bed she decided last night that she wanted one. And in the morning she kept it on, but took everything else off. Apart from her hat. It's always advisable to be properly attired when breaking one's fast, as I frequently remind her.

Our kitchen table is in front of a north-facing window, and it was an overcast morning, so there was a lot of nice soft backlight. These are all shot at f/1.8 on ISO 1600 with 1/250 s exposure. I'm still using the 50mm lens. And it still feels weird having to step back all the time because it's a bit long compared to what I'm used to. Missus.

By now I'd rediscovered the autofocus. Which was nice.

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OK, so I figured out which button to press and which wheel to twiddle to change the shutter speed and the aperture. (Up to now I'd just been able to alter the ISO.)

And then The Girl came home.

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I liked the dark covers on the more recent Harry Potter books.

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My Canon EOS 450D arrived yesterday. I'd taken a bit of online advice and picked up an EF 50 1.8 II lens for it, as I've discovered with my little snappy Panasonic that I like shooting in ambient light.

I did a 16mm film-making course a few years back, so I understood much of the theory of the mechanics of taking a photograph (despite the movie camera limitation of only having one shutter speed) - but I hadn't realised just how liberating it would be to finally get hooked up to the controls of a proper camera. It's something I've been meaning to do for years, but I thought as we're about to embark on our Big Adventure to the other side of the world now might be the time to get some kit to record some of it.

So how did I get on? Well, mixed results I think. Of course beyond figuring out how to put the thing together I DIDN'T READ THE MANUAL. I will. Eventually. So initially I couldn't figure out how to change the aperture or disable the flash, so I was stuck at f/5.6. There was nobody else home, so I took some pictures around the flat...

(For some reason I immediately switched to black and white.)

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Hey Charlie. I've got a proper camera! So now I can say things like: "I whacked it right up to f/1.8 to get some blow out from the window. I was shooting at 1/250 on ISO 1600 on the EF 50 1.8 II, which I'm finding a bit tight after the wide lens on my Panasonic, but takes me out of my comfort zone and gives great results for portraiture. Plus, for the price, given its performance in low light, it's a steal."

That kind of thing.

Hm. Maybe I should upload some pictures.

My muse is back, hooray! Blair blah blah, etc. Old news. What do people really want to know?...:


Blow me! Throat cancer?
Oral sex worse than smoking.
(Clinton chucks cigars.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6639461.stm

Want to know how people with gardens and people who might like gardening can help each other out..? Then go here: www.swopaplot.com

You could even help make it happen! :)

Should we tolerate
Tony Blair's intolerance
of intolerance?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6219626.stm

Duff Duchess stays south;
for once Cam-ill-a's left with
"no plum in one's mouth".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6161359.stm