Little Corner of Ania

We had the house full of four kids Friday/Saturday (but I was away all evening Friday leaving hubby alone w/the kids, bwahaha) …Saturday however I was alone w/them as he was doing a badminton-tournament, so I figured to make the best out of it and practice some with my new Nikkor 70-200mm lens.

(Plus, I was reorganizing my pictures the other day, and found out that I hardly had any pictures of the kids taken w/the DSLR for whole 2011 (the numbers were like, 3-5). All the DSLR-pictures were pretty much either work- or scrapbook-related. There seem to have been a shift in how I photograph after I got my iPhone – for private situations it’s so easy snapping away w/it, and drop using the DSLR at home. Hm. Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPhone-photos, and I love scrapping them too, but it feels like I lack a certain balance when so few of the private photos have been taken w/the DSLR so far in 2011.)

Yes, that’s my daughter. Yes, that’s the world’s messiest bed-hair.

This is our bonus-nephew (isn’t that what’s PK to call it?)

And here’s our other nephew. I made the kids line up for some quick portraits before they were allowed to go inside again (how else was I supposed to get these images? :P)

“Are you done now, the sun’s hurting my eyes!” :p

Most of the time I’ve been fascinated by how quickly she’s grown lately..in this image however, I still see the little baby in her…*soft sigh*

This dude is approx two weeks away from turning ten.
And yet I had to show my I.D. when buying wine the other day (which you have to be 18 for in Norway)… w/him in tow. I guess some people suspects him to be like, my little brother, and although it embarrasses me (I always have to make sure I have my I.D. with me, I dare not think what would happen if I did not :p) , it also amuses me – especially the part watching them carefully inspect my I.D., smile sheepishly and sometimes apologize (which kinda only mean: sorry we weren’t aware you were that old..hmm..). The lady the other day raised her eyebrows & eyes before retaining her stature and smiling back at me :p Hm.

Aargh, ze sun!

And because the rest of the pictures of him outside turned out not so great (had the focus wrong, doh ><), I begged him to let me retake his photo when we were inside again. Luckily he’s such a good guy agreeing to have his pictures retaken :)

Now, the Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 is such a magnificent lens, and testing some with it confirmed what I suspected in advance. Great for (outdoor) portraits (see how lovely the background gets blurred out)…but with my setup (the camera weights 3.2kg w/this lens – as my husband put it: “You could do some strength training using your camera”) it also means higher shuttertime req because it’s darn heavy and I need more (or rather, stronger) muscles to be able to hold it really steady..also, need more distance between me and the subjects (for portraits), which’s ok, because this beast is huge and intimidating up close :p…I also need more practice when it comes to using it for action-shots – because it allows you to get up closer on people, it also means you’ll have to be more careful w/the focus..making sure to put it spot on (especially when you’re like me, loving to stick to the wider focus)…fast-moving stuff is definitely something I need more practice on nevertheless (preferably something more safer than shooting say discus throw…I’ve never been more nervous or focused before in my life than when I was covering these crazy dangerous-for-photogs-sports..)..but it pleases me that I now can cover sports-events without having to ask to borrow the work’s canon-equipment, because I haven’t had a fast enough sport-lens before. And I’m very satisfied that I now have covered my basic lens-needs (14-200mm) – now, onto specific lenses like macro/tilt-shift/300-400/new camerahouse w/videomode…! :p

12.02.11

listening: to the sound of the zergs (it’s become weirdly comforting..and yes, I am talking about SC2)..
eating: brownies w/baked minimarshmellows & vanilla ice cream (hey, it’s Saturday!)
drinking: red wine…*soft sigh* *lovesit*
wearing: my lizardgreen hoodie..
feeling: stuffed..and happy to finally have updated to Lightroom3.3&Photoshop CS5
weather: cold..sunny..
wanting: Nikon to come out with a new semipro-camera w/videomode (like, a D800 or something like that) that’s affordable (affordable…*snort*)
needing: to finish this post so I can move on to more wine & creative stuff :p
thinking: Now that I am starting out w/a clean & brand new Lightroom 3.3 (and libraries..sigh..), I need to devise cunning plans on how to organize my images and stuff..
enjoying: reading the blogs of linguists/copy-editors…my favorites are the blogs “You don’t say” by John E. Mcintyre (US) and Finn Erik Vinje (Norwegian)
wondering: about words and languages and how it actually affects my prejudices.. I’m weird I guess..

13.02.11

listening: to the kiddo (actually, both kids) sing along to the karaoke-version of Green Day’s “Basket Case” on youtube..
eating: English Breakfast Muffins..
drinking: tea w/honey
wearing: slackerclothes..
feeling: okay…I suppose..
weather: this question is starting to get a lil’ boring…grey & cold! 
wanting: somebody to make me a cake, or something ><
needing: to fix my nails..and more, new nailpolishes! :p
thinking: that no matter how much I like Twitter, it’s pretty painful the hours before, during and after MGP (EuroVision, an European music-contest.. we apparently just picked a winner in the national contest)
enjoying: the little bit of spare time devoted to scrapbooking :)
wondering: what will happen in Egypt now – was all this really for the greater good, or will the old system just be replaced with something similar, or even worse… here’s to hoping it’ll really be for something the majority of the population actually will stand behind..the way the demonstrations were conducted (mostly peaceful) really did impress, by the way...I’m thinking 1. things takes time.. 2. it’ll be an interesting time, for sure..

Heidi Said,

10:55 PM

Wohoooooooooooo...de papirene fra Crate Paper ser ut til å bli ett MUST!!!! Ha en flott helg!

Det er de! Jeg trodde først Toy Box ikke helt var “meg” og den jeg kom til å like minst av alle de nye Crate-kolleksjonene, men etter å ha fått det i hus er det faktisk blitt favoritten min so far :D

Have a lovely Sunday, and Happy Mothers Day Norwegian mothers! :)