The Light of our Winter

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f4 – ISO 200 – It’s mid-January, I’m wearing short, t-shirt and looking up …. yeah we are definitely not in London anymore.

A second wedding in Martinique, mid-January – we did not need much convincing to follow Christophe and Emilie for a week in paradise. So the four of us jumped on the plane – actually we were 7, the grand-parents did not need much convincing to come with us either. So it’s tough but four of us (Daniele, JP, Jean-Pierre, Ariane) are not represented in the images below – rules of the blog, only show your best work – so apologies.

While we are on photography – this was not the most prolific week, quite surprising because Martinique is obviously extremely photogenic. Only 22 top-rated pictures (versus 48 for our week in Brittany) is clearly below expectations. Well we did not move around the island too much (not enough !), we stayed mostly in the villa or at the beach for the children to enjoy some warm weather – so I guess that would do for the excuse …

Olivier did not really enjoy the outbound flight and he was quite sweaty over there, plus he did not want to understand that we were supposed to sleep at different times ! For Chiara – on the other hand – it was a blast. What is the most important for us those days is wearing dresses – so she could wear all her summer dresses at will, she enjoyed the pool (a bit less the beach) and just staying outside all day long. She did not even mind the mosquitos who literally devoured her. And since we are back she keep saying weather was much more enjoyable in Martinique – really ??!

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f9(left)/2.8(right) – ISO 12800(left)/200(right) – Our villa, pool-side. On the left the view of the large decked area with the family table. On the right Chiara chilling out in the hammock, wearing … guess what, a pink dress.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f2.8 – ISO 200 – Olivier, laying down trying to cool down on the couch near the swimming-pool (outside as well)

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A few pictures of our short visit to the botanical gardens “Jardin de Balata”. Not only it was beautiful but having energy and calm to focus on photography also helps getting better results. All the pictures below were taken with the 24-70mm (except the last one of the Colibri with the 70-200mm). The first one below is obviously an HDR photo – but there is only one !

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f2.8 – ISO 200 – Olivier having another “mother time”, with this mosquitos bites, showing off his new hair cut – the messiness is done on purpose, just don’t ask !

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f5 – ISO 200 – Picture from the “Habitation Clement” – again another HDR.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 70-200mm f3.2 – ISO 1600 – Chiara looking worryingly at the sea, after a quick bath. So Sabrina is taking the opportunity to steal a cuddle on the cheap !

Olivier 1st !

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f3.5 – ISO 1250 – A photographer dream, Olivier always very photogenic is posing and showing off his tan during his birthday party. He wants to stand up all the time now, or maybe he just found the floor of the pub not suitable for crawling …

Olivier just turned one. As Chiara rightly said, we had “another” birthday for him on Sunday – but this time with friends. We rented the private bar at the Crabtree in Fulham and spend the afternoon there with mostly Mum and Dad friends, but also Chiara’s. Olivier was happy eating cake and playing with balloons.

He has grown so fast in the past few months. With his new haircut, he looks more and more like a little boy. Not much talking yet, but he is always on the move to compensate !

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Sony RX100 – 60mm/28mm f2.0 – ISO 1000/125 – The crew is preparing the venue for the guests. Chiara is balloon-holder, while mum is choosing the wine.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f3.5 – ISO 800 – Special order from Sabrina, a very British, home-made chocolate train carved and prepared with love by Chiara and JP. Chiara was absolutely thrilled and stayed in the kitchen for the whole time – also making sure she could taste every single ingredient or decoration item during preparation.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f2.8 – ISO 320 – Olivier, not very impressed by the setup, is contemplating the balloons.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f5.6 – ISO 2500 +1,5e/v – Sparkles always a hit with kids. The picture was over-exposed to see kids face, next time we will remove the balloons (helium balloons not so great for portraits).

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f2.8 – ISO 1000 – Presents opening, it’s getting late. All the dads had a few beers and cheese, sugar level is dropping for kids – time to go home.

Photo Assignment – The Pony and the Princess

During Christmas in France, Sabrina and Anthony took the challenge to go and photograph Chiara horse riding on a (tiny) pony. They did not know at the time it was a real photo assignment – and that their pictures would be commented afterwards.

They did do a pretty decent job, definitely good enough to spend the time doing a blog post – and the reportage-style is making the story easy to tell as well !

Sabrina was shooting with the Sony RX100 and Anthony with the Canon 5D Mark III (24-70mm 2.8) – good work !

 

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Sony RX100 – 28mm f2.0 – ISO 125 – Preparation of the beast. Very good “action shot”, spot on framing and good capture of the moment. When you enjoy riding horses, you need to enjoy the whole experience … Chiara did not seem to mind.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f2.8 – ISO 200 – Good action shot as well, spot on framing and focus on Chiara’s head. The shot from the top is giving a very good perspective, shame it’s not very sharp. The photographer was tall, Chiara not tall enough to clean her tiny beast …

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f2.8 – ISO 200 – Vertical portrait do not usually work – but in this case it does. Subject is well isolated, the picture is sharp and obviously Chiara is smiling. Picture was slightly cropped to remove a road sign on the right. This is the winner.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk III – 24-70mm f2.8 – ISO 200 – Very good perspective, picture taken from the ground. If the pony could see this shot he would probably feel quite tall – for the first time in his life. Chiara was also surprised to find someone more stubborn than her, but she had to look for it outside of the human race.

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Sony RX100 (left) Canon 5D Mk III (right) – We are typically in reportage, paparazzi style for the good bye kiss, with the approach on the left and the final scene on the right.

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