Graham Leggate

Hard to believe our youngest is going to be 1 on Sunday! It feels like he has been around forever, but it doesn’t feel like he has been with us for as long as 1 year either! All I know is they grow up really fast. We headed down to a little park on the coast near the Wild Fig cafe on the weekend to get some fresh air, and here’s a couple of snaps of our little boy, who seems to weigh a ton, a week before he turns 1.

No new landscapes… just a quick portrait of James, who turn 6 months old on Saturday.

For those who might be interested. The setup to do this type of shot is pretty straight forward. This was shot using the D90 with an 18-105, at around 48mm, f/5.0, 1/800 at ISO 1000, I was also shooting using spot metering. The photo was taken on the dining room floor, which has a pair of glass doors facing north west, so shooting in the afternoon is preferable. I use a black sheet as the back drop, which is draped and clamped to the back of the dining room chairs. I have a trusty reflector on hand to help get rid of any hard shadows, fire off a few shots… and hey presto you have some portraits… well nearly. Work a little digital dark room magic, get the blacks black, increase the colour saturation a little, get the skin softer and sharpen a few features, then you are ready to print.

I thought I would post a couple of pictures of the little ones, since I don’t have any landscapes to post. Plus I’m sure the family in the UK would like to see some pics of Amelie in the pool and James at bath time

With so much going on; the arrival of James 6 weeks ago, Amelie being unwell, the in-laws over from London, renovations on the house (hooray! All the rendering is complete, well nearly, except for 1 pillar, new gutters fitted, new fascia covers, new wardrobes, most of the bits which bolt to the outside of the house are on, new gates are on order, cedar ceiling installed in the portico and the plans for the new balcony and patio are in progress); there hasn’t been any time to get out and do any landscape photography. However I have still had the D90 out, but mainly focussing the kids. I have to give my wife a pat on her back… she has had to put up with the renovations and other stresses whilst also giving birth!

Anyway, here’s a couple of pictures, the first is of Amelie taken in the garden today… yes she is rugged up as if it is snowing… it was bloody cold out side today. The second picture is of James, taken a couple of weekends ago, when he was 4 weeks old.

I still haven’t tried any arty-farty pictures, but now we are able to get James milk drunk I should be able too So in the mean-time I thought I would post a couple of snaps of Amelie and James.

I didn’t get as much time as I hoped to try my hand at some arty-farty pictures of James. I got a short time on Sunday afternoon to give something a go. I spent a little bit of time making a small backdrop which I can hopefully re-use again. This was quite a difficult shot to take, as he is a real wigglier! Also my remote is infrared and I had it in my mouth whilst holding my hands in front of me and pointing my mouth back to the camera… now I’m writing this, I am thinking “Why didn’t I just use the self timer and set up a 10 shot batch?” Oh well… live and learn. Hopefully I will get some time to try some more over the next few weeks, if not, expect to see pictures of fruit and other junk around the house