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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Getting Ready to Custom-Paint Some Shirts

In the “Loose Tooth” post a couple of weeks ago, Anthony was wearing a T-Shirt he'd made with his Aunt Natalie. Natalie is an elementary-school art teacher, so is always full of fun ideas for kids. For the conflagration of cousins earlier this month, where all my folks' six grandkids got together for the first time, she made up personalized aprons for the kids, got blank T-shirts and fabric paint and stuff, and had an event the kids loved.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Initial Instruction
painting a Teddy-bear-shaped sponge

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 52 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Painting Solo

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 58 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 220 — map & image data — nearby photos
Round One
Anthony and Josh went first; siblings Grace and Luke later

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 48 mm — ¹/500 sec, f/4.5, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Successful Stamp
and a bit of dribble

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 250 — map & image data — nearby photos
Aunt-Assisted Stamp

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/500 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Happy With the Result

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/800 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Shirt Factory

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
S

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 66 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/4.5, ISO 320 — map & image data — nearby photos
Artistic License

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 44 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Details

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Grace Gives “R” Her Careful Attention

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 55 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Happy With the Result

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 60 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/5, ISO 400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Luke Gets a Helping Hand(s)

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/5, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos

The letter stamps were actually pretty difficult to use, because (for reasons I can't quite imagine) the letter's mirror-image was shown on the back of the stamp, so with some letters you had to really think to overpower your brain's innate desire to see the letter properly. For Anthony it was an issue for only “N” (the others are all reflexive across the vertical axis), but when he got to it, I really had to check and double-check and visualize how the ink was going to be laid down.

We let the paint dry for a day or two, and then they could wear them, and they all loved them. Thanks Aunt Natalie!

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/100 sec, f/2.2, ISO 4500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Letter to Mommy

While we've been on our trip to The States, Anthony heard that Mommy had progressed to a new level in her ballet dancing, so he wanted to send her a letter to congratulate her...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/100 sec, f/1.4, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 85mm f/1.4 — ¹/100 sec, f/2.2, ISO 2800 — map & image data — nearby photos
Addressing

Anthony can write Hiragana fine (one of the three Japanese scripts), but he can't yet write kanji (“Chinese characters”) except his name, so I wrote the address and had him copy it. It's not a good idea to do this very much, because the order that the strokes of each character are written is very important, so no experience is better than untrained experience. But doing it once won't hurt, and I thought Mommy might appreciate to see his efforts.

We're heading into the last week of our trip soon... then back on a plane for Kyoto, where I have a month of unread email waiting...

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 102 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2500 — map & image data — nearby photos
Four Siblings
Alan, Marci, Me (Jeff), Mike
Steve, oldest of the five, not pictured

I should have included this on yesterday's post about the herding-cats nature of photographing groups of kids and family photos. My mom took this picture two weeks ago, with my camera, but I hadn't gotten around to even looking at the shots until this evening.

Kids will be Kids

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Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 160 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/5, ISO 280 — full exif
Six Cousins
Anthony (6),   Grace (4),   Josh (3)
Luke (2)
Titi (4 mo),   Jena (10 mo)

I've been quite busy helping my folks with some cleanup projects lately, but wanted to do at least a quick post from the Conflagration of Cousins week, which has now finally ended, as all but Anthony have returned to their various far-away corners of the world.

We attempted a group shot of the six kids, a short but stressful event that was doomed to failure from the start due to lack of planning on the part of the photographer (me).

First I'll recount what actually happened, then, based upon what I learned, what we should have done differently.

I told all the parents (my siblings) to pair up with their kid and be ready in five minutes. Since my kid (Anthony) is six and the oldest and has a lot of experience standing while Daddy takes photos, I asked him to be helpful to the other kids so we could get a photo. At the appointed time my sister Marci got the older four kids arranged on the toy backhoe as I found a good vantage spot for the camera, then the two babies were brought in and I started snapping shots.

The two oldest looked at the camera and smiled, and the other four looked all around aimlessly, sometimes at one of the various adults arrayed around the yard, or at the sand pile, or whatever caught their attention for that microsecond. The older kids' attention then went to the younger kids who were not paying attention, and soon each of the six kids were looking in a different direction.

Seeing this lack of photogenicity, the parents started jumping and yelling and clapping.... Look here honey..... smile.... look at Mommy..... smile..... The kids' reaction to this display of lunacy varied depending on the kid and the moment, but they ranged among indifference, smiles, bewilderment, and tears.

Canon PowerShot SD870 IS — ¹/60 sec, f/5.6, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Photographer and Crazies
Photo by Grandma Friedl

The only ones not acting crazy were me ('cause I had the camera), and my folks. My mom, having gone through this each year for our Christmas picture when we were kids, just smiled and chuckled a well-earned “now it's your turn” chuckle.

Here's our family Christmas card picture from 35 years ago, in 1974, as my folks were working on an addition to the house:

Al and Phyllis Friedl Family, 1974
Mike, Alan, Steve, Mom, Jeff, Dad, Marci

I'm below my Dad, standing on the backhoe stabilizer foot. We have wonderful shots from every year, and I actually remember the experiences for the ones starting when I was four years old.

They're great memories now, but it was a huge ordeal to get the shots, as one or more of us kids were usually in a bad mood or otherwise uncooperative. Generally, once we were old enough to understand (that is, old enough to know that it was eating into our play time but we weren't getting anything out of it), we hated it. We all complained, and the moment the first picture was taken we all tried to bolt, only to be called back for a few more frames, “just in case”.

Perhaps it's a bit late, but I think I speak for all my siblings when I finally say “sorry, and thanks” to my folks. I suppose the thanks applies not only to creating these photo memories, but also to little details like raising us to be good people. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Oh, and by the way, the backhoe in the cousin shot is a homage to the 1974 family photo, my sister Marci's wonderful idea.

So, what did I learn about taking a photo of a group of kids?

First, parents and grandparents and other things that tend to grab a kid's attention should all be generally behind the camera, so that the kids appear to be looking at the camera if they're looking at someone. I have pictures where half of the kids are looking off to one side, and surprise surprise, my mom (way off to one side) has a picture at the exact same moment of half the kids looking right at her. In the “Crazies” photo above, one parent (Natalie) is too far off to the side, so her daughter (the infant, Titi) spent most of the time looking that way.

Second, prep the older kids. Each parent of an old-enough kid should talk to the kid beforehand, one on one away from everyone else, and do whatever is required to put them in the right frame of mind to look at the camera and smile. Candy and bribes of toys if they do a good job are the order of the day here. If you're the type of parent who, like me, is reticent to use bribes, make an exception (or forego the photo shoot, unless a photo of a brooding, pouty kid is your idea of a fond memory).

Third, prep the younger kids. This usually involves timing their naps or feedings so that they're in their best mood. If a kid is usually grumpy right after waking up (as I am), don't schedule the shoot for just after their nap. And have lots of treats on hand to ply them (and the photographer) with.

Fourth, and this is just a guess, but I think it would have been helpful if the photographer had a really wild and silly hat of some kind, so that the parents could invite the kids to look at it. That's much easier, and more fun, than “look at the camera” or "look at Uncle Jeffy (even though you can't see him behind that big camera thingie)."

Fifth, plan a bit more about exactly where the kids will stand, and do some tests ahead of time with something standing in for the kids, to test focus, background, and composition. I neglected to do this, and as a result, did not realize that Jena (the toddler standing in front) was slightly out of focus in every shot.

I learned all this too late, and there wasn't a single photo (of the several dozen I took over the course of a minute or two) where more than half of the kids were looking at the camera with some semblance of a smile. But, this is the digital age, and I was able to take parts from four separate photos and comp them together in Photoshop to create the photo that leads this post.

It's not great, but it'll make for a nice memory.

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Nikon D700 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/10, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mike and Grace, Me and Luke
me with my brother and his kids, at 14mm

When I got my Nikon D700 last year, I also picked up the new Nikkor 14-24 zoom. On the D700's full-frame sensor, the 14mm is about as wide angle as you can get without being a fish-eye lens. I haven't used it much, mostly because it's big and heavy specialty lens that I have to switch to for the one moment in an event where I think it might be useful, then switch back, and I often don't think it'll be worth the bother.

I have used it around the house a bit, having posted photos with it here and here, and occasionally since. I did bring it along on my current trip to Ohio, so I thought I'd post some of the results.

The main benefit of a wide-angle lens is, of course, its wide angle, but objects that are near the can be severely distorted. Sometimes that can be used for effect, as I did in Fun at 24mm, and here:

Nikon D700 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — ¹/2000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Swoosh

Nikon D700 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/9, ISO 1100 — map & image data — nearby photos
Apple Right Off the Tree

Nikon D700 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — ¹/1000 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cooperative Transportation
I should have included this on the Josh/Grace Driving post the other day

Distortion diminishes if most things are roughly the same distance from the lens (where anything more than 10 or so meters away is equally “far”), and you get more “wide” and less “angle”, but then, anything more than 10 or so meters away becomes tiny in the frame...

Nikon D700 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — ¹/640 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Chasing Geese
if you click to open the large version, and squint, you can see a flock of geese taking off

Nikon D700 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — ¹/80 sec, f/14, ISO 360 — map & image data — nearby photos
After the Storm

After a big thunderstorm yesterday, the sun came out and we had bright light to one side, and dark, foreboding clouds rolling away on the other, and we thought for sure we'd get a spectacular rainbow, but no such luck.

Sometimes you just want to get everything in frame, and 14mm is what it takes...

Nikon D700 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Videos on Uncle Mikey's 'Puter

Nikon D700 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 3200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Only in Grandma's House

The particular Nikon lens I have zooms to 24mm, an unimpressive 1.7× zoom range on paper (for comparison, an 18-200mm zoom has an 11.1× zoom range), but the difference is notable, with much less distortion because there's much less to try to fit into the frame...

Nikon D700 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/320 sec, f/5.6, ISO 640 — map & image data — nearby photos
Eric Carle's Morning Glory
( Eric Carle wrote The Very Hungry Caterpillar )

Nikon D700 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/1250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Big Gracie

I don't use this lens much, but it's fun when I do.

Nikon D700 + 14-24mm f/2.8 @ 14 mm — ¹/400 sec, f/2.8, ISO 4500 — map & image data — nearby photos