Another Grey Weekend in London

The weather in London has been miserable lately—grey, cold, and wet. So, we’ve been making the most of it by enjoying some cozy, quality time at home with Chiara.

Another weekend, another birthday! Saturday was Luka’s turn, with a safe and fun indoor kids’ party. On Sunday, we finally braved the outdoors—but stayed close to home—to let Chiara test out her rapidly improving walking skills at the park. 🚶‍♀️🌳

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 28-70mm – 1/60s f/3.2, ISO 640 (flash) – Luka was not fast enough to blow his birthday candles, so someone else took the spot. Not sure about the mood Black and White conversion gives to this picture, but it was definitely a joyful moment.

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 28-70mm – 1/60s f/2.8, ISO 500 (flash) – On the left, the cake, with customised icing (didn’t last very long). On the right Chiara trying to ask for something, but not sure why … This last picture is not very sharp, so keeping it small is definitely more flattering …

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 28-70mm – 1/60s f/2.8, ISO 500 (flash) – This one is pretty obvious, Chiara is enjoying the cake.

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 28-70mm – 1/200s f/2.8, ISO 250 – Chiara running in Normand Park. Her coat is slightly too long, we did realise but it means we don’t need to put her gloves. Her favourite walking game seems to be going in the exact opposite direction we ask her to go to.

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 28-70mm – 1/250s f/2.8, ISO 250 – Chiara on a swing, a more controlled activity for us as at least we know where she is heading to, no need to chase her up.

Birthday Season … Started

While weddings were a rare few each year, kids’ birthdays seem to pop up everywhere! 2011 has barely started, and we’ve already celebrated Maxime’s 2nd birthday on January 22nd, followed by Megan’s last Saturday.

These parties are a real challenge for photography. They’re usually indoors (especially in winter), with low lighting, and the kids are always darting around. On top of that, you’re expected to keep an eye on your own child too! Multitasking at its finest! 🎉📸

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 28-70mm – 1/200s f/2.8, ISO 3200 – Chiara enjoying Megan’s birthday, sometimes impressed so in observation mode, sometimes jumping around with others. It was happening in Gymboree Islington, an all-padded area with a dynamic entertainer. (Photos from Sab)

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Since last Monday, Chiara has officially started walking—really walking this time! Now we’re constantly chasing her around, and it feels like a whole new adventure for us.

(If you’re wondering why we mostly share photos of Chiara, even at other kids’ birthdays, it’s simple: we do take pictures of other children, but we prefer to let their parents decide how to manage their kids’ online presence. Unless they’re family or close friends, we usually won’t post them here)

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 28-70mm – 1/400s f/2.8, ISO 2500 – Chiara walking on the parachute, on her own. As all adults were around pulling edges to make waves, she eventually fell down but somehow managed to stay up longer than I imagined. 

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 28-70mm – 1/160s f/2.8, ISO 3200 – Chiara playing inside a tube. As the whole picture was reddish (tube was coloured), the picture was de-saturated and over-exposed to keep it visually interesting.

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Canon EOS 5D MkII – EF 28-70mm – 1/640s f/2.8, ISO 3200 – Birthday girl Megan blowing her candles with help from daddy and mummy. (Photo from Sab)

We forgot the flash, so most of the pictures had to be taken at f2.8 and ISO3200. While the 5D MkII handles low light pretty well, the white balance was way off in most shots. The photos turned out grainy and washed out in terms of color.

To make things trickier, some shots of the kids had brightly colored backgrounds, meaning the white balance needed individual tweaks. Faces often ended up lit by non-white light too. So, every picture in this post went through heavy color corrections and noise reduction to look decent!

Ski Week in Les Arcs

We just got back from a family holiday in Les Arcs 2000 with Chiara, Noemie, and all four of Chiara’s grandparents. Thanks to Anthony’s perfect planning, a tag-team childcare system in the chalet, and some decent snow, everything was in place for an amazing week!

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Canon EOS 20D – EF 50mm – 1/160 sec at f/11, ISO 100 – Late afternoon in Les Arcs, top of the Arcabulle ski lift, a view from the Mont Blanc. This picture is a panorama created from 3 pictures. This was one of the only days where Mont Blanc was clear of its usual cap of clouds.

A late snowfall of about 15cm at the start of the week gave us just enough powder for the next few days—perfect for some fun runs and a solid warm-up for La Grave.

We brought along our trusty (but soon-to-be-retired) EOS 20D with a budget 50mm lens. It fit snugly in the backpack with minimal financial risk. Surprisingly, it worked pretty well! Not the best for landscapes, but with some photo stitching, we pulled off a few nice shots.

Others brought their cameras too, and the iPad once again proved its worth. It was perfect for gathering everyone’s pictures and putting together nightly slideshows—and, of course, doubling as a fantastic toy for Chiara and Noemie!

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Panasonic TZ5 – 1/640 sec at f/10, ISO 100 – The A-(ski)Team posing in front of the Mont Blanc in the only red slopes they managed to take during the whole week (kidding obviously, all decent skiers ). Ready for the next winter Olympics. (Photo from Anthony)

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Canon EOS 20D – EF 50mm – 1/800 sec at f/6.3, ISO 100 – Picture of Les Arcs 1950 resorts. It was a very pretty little wooden centre and therefore extremely popular with Russian, Dutch and British tourists. The cloud at the bottom of the picture was moving up fast and we were in it few minutes after.

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Canon EOS 20D – EF 50mm – 1/1250 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100 – Sab and Chiara in Les Arcs 1950 – during the only lunch break we did outside of our chalet. Chiara boots are about 3 sizes bigger than her feet – but it was impossible to find snow boots, size 17 …

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Panasonic TZ5 – 1/400 sec at f/8, ISO 100 – Picture from the Mont Blanc, late afternoon, taken from a similar spot from the first picture of the post. The picture was cropped to a panoramic format and de-saturated. The wide angle and the clouds give a very different perspective, maybe more dynamic than the first one. (Photo from Anthony)