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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Final Adjustments

Yesterday, Anthony attended the birthday party of his five-year-old honorary-cousin, Katie Patterson. (Katie's daddy has been a friend of our family for 30 years, so has acquired family-member status).

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 190 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Excitement Builds

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 120 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Birthday Girl
Katie Patterson

The party was at a fun-center with bowling and other games, and crazy lighting that changed colors every few seconds. You didn't really pay much attention to it... one quickly learned to tune it out... but the camera doesn't, of course, so the lighting is wild and different in every shot. We were near the wash of sunlight coming from some windows, so that helped even things out a bit, but the colors were still crazy...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mmmmmmmm!

Nikon D700 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/4, ISO 5600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Time for Presents

Not having much experience shopping in America for a 5-year-old girl, I called Jill (Katie's mom) beforehand for advice on a present, and she suggested that Katie would be thrilled with a “Hungry Hippo” game. And boy-oh-boy, was she...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 120 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 4000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Hungry-Hippo Happy!

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 78 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 4500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Thanks Cousin Anthony
photo-op hug

I was amazing at how well all the kids behaved. There happened to be another five-year-old's birthday party in the neighboring lanes, and over the course of two hours, all of the 15+ kids of the combined parties were just wonderful... no fussy meltdowns or anything. Really unexpected of a bunch of four and five year olds. Wonderful.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 98 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Then It Was Time For Cake

Katie was a natural at posing for photos..... both “Birthday Girl” and “Hungry-Hippo Happy” above were taken while she paused after seeing me take a picture.... there was no asking or coaxing required.

Yet, a few weeks ago when I first saw her on my current trip to The States, she was very shy of the camera. (I don't blame her... she didn't really know who I was, other than one of her parents' friends.) So after they'd joined us out for dinner one night, in the parking lot on the way back to our cars, I had the camera out and asked whether I could take her picture, and she immediately slid behind her daddy's leg to hide. So, to demonstrate that it wouldn't hurt (or whatever), I showed her as I took an impromptu portrait of her daddy (“Hey Ray, stand right there and look like it's not unpleasant”), then showed here the result on the back of the camera....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/6.3, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ray Patterson
impromptu, in a restaurant parking lot

They were coming over the next day for the Summer of Cousins big day, so after showing her the picture, I asked whether she'd let me take her picture tomorrow, and she smiled a super photogenic smile framed by blond curls.

Sadly, it rained all day the next day, and they weren't able to come when it was rescheduled, so my first photo opportunity became her birthday party. Despite the wild lighting and unphotogenic backgrounds, it's hard to go wrong with curls like that.

The big fun for the kids at the party was bowling. They had super-light kid bowling balls, and the lanes had gutter bumpers, so every shot was a winner, and all the kids had great fun.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 116 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Anthony's Perfect Bowling Form

Anthony, of course, does not have any bowling form... I have no idea what he was doing to appear in the shot above as if he knew how to bowl, but it wasn't bowling.

Here's how he actually bowled....

Two-Handed Heave

At this age, the gutter bumpers really make the difference between fun and not fun. No one cares about the score (we didn't keep score), only having fun. Anthony's last roll of the day, right before they turned off the lanes, was his first strike, so he ended the day on a great note.

Thanks for inviting us, Katie, and happy birthday!