Snowing Christmas Presents

We spent Christmas week in Marseille with Chiara’s four grandparents and a few (but not all) of her aunts and uncles. She was, of course, spoiled with gifts—so many that we couldn’t bring them all back to London! Chiara and her toys stayed behind in Marseille for an extra week while we headed off for our ski trip.

The photos below were taken with our 5D MkII, using 100mm or 50mm lenses. Unfortunately, our main zoom lens didn’t survive London’s winter chill. This made for more cropping and some tricky indoor shots!

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Canon EOS 5D Mk II – EF 100mm – 1/250 sec at f/5.6, ISO 100 – Late afternoon on Marseille “vieux port” with a view of “Notre Dame de la Garde” in the background. The picture was cropped and the sky darkened to improve the dramatic look of sunset.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk II – EF 100mm – 1/80 sec at f/2.8, ISO 2000 – Chiara sharing her Christmas presents, or more specifically asking for people to play with her or explain how toys work.

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Canon EOS 400D – EF 28-135mm – 1/80 sec at f/3.5, ISO 800 – Almost everyone (missing Gael who took the picture) waiting eagerly to start the aperitif and presents opening. Chiara was the only one who respected the dress code wearing her red Christmas pyjama.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk II – EF 100mm – 1/50 sec at f/2.8, ISO 2000 – Chiara enjoying time with uncle Anthony jumping around. The 100mm macro is producing awesome portraits as soon as the distance to subject is carefully managed. It’s very sharp in the centre and adding a bit of vignetting re-enforce this sensation.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk II – EF 100mm – 1/3200 sec at f/2.8, ISO 100 – Fishing boats in Cassis. We spent a few hours in this very picturesque town. One may wonder if the colourful boats were placed on purpose for postcard pictures.

Canon EOS 5D Mk II – EF 100mm – 1/1000 sec at f/2.8, ISO 2000 – Portrait of Chiara on the left and standing up on the right. Chiara was walking when we left London but has been very shy in Marseille and only did a few steps although she still look very proud when she stands up on her own.
Those picture were taken on the top floor of the house where we had a very pleasant light coming out from the window.

London Wildlife

This weekend, Daniele visited London to spend time with Chiara. Sunday was all about exploring London’s wildlife—starting at West Brompton Cemetery in the morning and ending at the Natural History Museum in the evening. Chiara was thrilled the entire time, greeting every sighting with her signature “hey!” and a pointing finger.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk II – 1/200 sec at f/8, ISO 400 – Early Sunday morning in West Brompton Cemetery. It was cold and sky was clear. This picture was slightly de-saturated to fix the time even more, the light was perfect for photography, low and not too strong.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk II – 1/1600 sec at f/4.5, ISO 500 – Chiara meeting the pigeons, not scared but she was barely moving in observation mode. And yes we had to use some bread to get them close enough for this picture.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk II – 1/1600 sec at f/4.5, ISO 500 – Chiara very excited by the leaves and trees, trying to walk with a single handhold. We did her first steps in the last week and can stand up on her own and do three to four steps – not enough to catch wildlife safely but she enjoys trying. 

Chiara 1st Birthday

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Canon EOS 5D Mk II – 1/1600 sec at f/4, ISO 2500 – One of the birthday cakes, lit by candles.

We celebrated Chiara’s first birthday today at a cozy café in Ravenscourt Park. Around 25 friends and family joined us, making it a lovely afternoon despite the cold and early evening darkness outside. Chiara was, of course, thoroughly spoiled, and while we didn’t bring home as much food as we arrived with, the car was still packed by the end of the day!

A big thank you, on Chiara’s behalf, to everyone who came and for the wonderful presents—it meant so much to us! 😊🎉

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Canon EOS 5D Mk II – 1/80 sec at f/4, ISO 1000 – The food table, setup before the arrival of the guests. The iPad in the middle is showing some of last week photo shoot best of from Chiara.  Nothing close to this today for portraits as it has become dark very early in the room – and our flash was not behaving nicely so most pictures were taken at high ISO.

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Canon EOS 5D Mk II – 1/60 sec at f/4, ISO 2500 – Chiara playing with Megan on small baby tables, the room came packed with plenty of toys.