Fulham Fun Fair (FFF)

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 50mm – 1/1250s f/3.2, ISO 125 – Just after a shower the light was softer for a few minutes – this has been shot almost facing the sun.

Today, we spent an hour at the Fulham Fun Fair in Walham Green, just a 10-minute walk from our flat. It’s been there for the past two weeks, and it was Chiara’s very first fun fair—and her first time riding a children’s ride all by herself!

She might have been a little young for it, but we went for it anyway. We decided to save the cotton candy for another time. All in all, lots of fun for around £10! 🎠🍭

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 50mm – 1/1250s f/4.5, ISO 400 – Chiara fist ride on her own. We were initially a bit anxious to leaver her as she has a tendency to stand up and leave quickly but she enjoyed it so much she did not move a bit (or maybe she was scared).

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 50mm – 1/400s f/3.2 (left) – 1/60 f/11 (right) – Chiara and Sab on the Carousel. I did not do the same mistake as last time – as the horse is moving left to right but also top to bottom 1/60 is fast enough to freeze the vertical movement so the panning is for once reasonable. It was pretty impossible to get Chiara to look at me – when she realise it was me, the horse was already gone …

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 50mm – 1/1250s f/2.8, ISO 125 – Chiara’s preferred ride of the day – those are big comfy cards with leather seat and a decent steering wheel. She obviously asked “encore” when we left, but at £2 per ride we had to keep the budget under control.

A Kensington’s Afternoon

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Panasonic GF1 – 20mm – 1/50s f/1.8, ISO 100 – Special menu at the Kensington Hotel for the Christening. We had a huge family table in a private backroom, unfortunately for the other guests around the children did find the doors to wonder around the hotel.

Yesterday, we joined Maxime and Raphael’s christening lunch at the Kensington Hotel, followed by a family visit to the Natural History Museum. The highlight? The temporary butterfly tent.

Our smart-casual outfits weren’t the best choice for the tent’s humid environment, and our Panasonic GF1 struggled with indoor and close-up butterfly shots. A good reminder that traveling light has its drawbacks! 🦋🎥

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Panasonic GF1 – 20mm – 1/60s f/1.8, ISO 100 – Chiara is becoming (worryingly) more and more English. After the sandwiches at 3pm for Zoe’s birthday last week-end, see her face in front of sausages and mash.

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Panasonic GF1 – 20mm – 1/60-100s f/1.8, ISO 100 – Right the negative effect in Lightroom highlight the insect vs. its environment and gives a nice blue colour (not real obviously)

Photographing small insects with the GF1 + 20mm proved tricky for several reasons

  1. No Macro/Zoom Lens: I had to get very close to the butterflies to fill the frame, and most of the pictures on the blog are cropped to look decent.
  2. Focus Issues: The focus isn’t fast or precise enough. I wanted to focus on wing patterns or the head, but using the LCD screen was imprecise and slow—by the time I was ready, the butterfly had usually flown off.
  3. Speed/Aperture Limitations: Ideally, I needed 1/500s at f/2 or lower, but the GF1 couldn’t handle that. Where was the 5D MkII with the 100mm macro lens when I needed it? Sitting at home, just 15 minutes away…
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Panasonic GF1 – 20mm – 1/100s f/1.8, ISO 100 – It was difficult to find interesting background – most of it was white or pale green, not too many flowers. The wooden frame adds some interesting perspective and also a nice brownish feel.

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Panasonic GF1 – 20mm – 1/250s f/1.8, ISO 100 – Luckily this one is perfectly in focus. The head of the butterfly is on focus when everything else is not.

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Panasonic GF1 – 20mm – 1/200s f/1.8, ISO 100 – Maxime and Chiara looking away, in the green in front of the national history museum. The black triangle on the top right is not a photo effect but the leg of a guy who passed just in front of me (not that we didn’t have space in the park …)

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Farmville

A very city-style outing for children is to discover “nature in it’s environment”. Last Saturday Zoe celebrated her second birthday in a farm, in the greater London area. Time to checkout if the animals book reading lessons could be applied in the field.

Aside for the very tightly organised activities in the afternoon, we had some time to wander around and feed some classics like cows, pigs, sheep, goats. The children were usually excited but kept their distance. For some it was around a meter or so, for others as close as 10cm – but putting their hands in the animal mouth to feed them, no way (the sheep are surprisingly good at not eating your fingers when you feed them – I tried to make sure it was safe).

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 24-70mm – 1/50s f/2.8, ISO 100 – Chiara picking up food for the sheep. This is about as close as she got, after she was throwing the food in the sheep face rather than letting it feed in her hand. When you look at the size of the sheep mouth vs. her hand you may understand why.

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 24-70mm (left) and EF 100mm (right) – Left, Zoe celebrating with some help from her dad to manage the candles. Right, an Alpaca, not a very local animal but he made an effort with his hair to I thought he deserved a portrait shot.

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 24-70mm (left) and EF 100mm (right) – Two pictures taken during the “tractor ride” around the farm. We were not in the tractor, but in a converted trailer – so we could enjoy the dust and the bumps of a farm ride. The children loved it as you can see on the left.

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 100mm – 1/125s f2.8, ISO 500 – Now for the proper tractor ride, Chiara driving and Sab is doing the engine. We could have put £1 and the tractors were motorised but Chiara could not reach the accelerator pedal – so that’s a good excuse to save money and do some exercise.

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 24-70mm – 1/3200s f/2.8, ISO 400 – Chiara and JP arrival at the bottom of the yellow slide. It was quite long and fast (according to Chiara usual standards), so her smile is a bit forced – she was not scared, but it was not far from it.