Party time

[Dan Cattermole]

Had a great time at my little niece's birthday party, done alot of lens changing, My 'new' 50mm f1.8 was the highlight of the party. I do stress how difficult it really is to focus and catch the subject and the shot your after whilst on a sugar high (I'm sure all you experienced lot would know)

I also found that a very useful peice of advice on this forum worked very well, and that was to get the child(rens) eye view when taking the shot (thanks chris)

And also tried a bit of zone focusing (cheers hammy) lol. Which to my surprise worked quite well, only.... I need to calibrate my estimations on distances a bit more. But great results achieved when combining the two together, without acumillating grass stains on my t-shirt. Lol.

Thanks guys, couldn't think of anywhere else to find advice and techniques from.....

Oh, and here's the pics.

My 1 year old niece.....

My daughter (thinking it's her birthday through hint of jealousy) lol

This shot was taken off my 35-70m f2.8 macro OM lens, i love the composure but wish I had longer that a few seconds to focus, not as sharp as I hoped. Lol

Lunch break on the castle.......

I think it's going to rain......

And last but not least..... The cake!!!

Many thanks for sharing ideas and techniques to help me achieve the pictures above.

 

[Pete Askew]

Nice series Dan. My favourite is 'walking the duck'. In some ways I actually prefer the focus on the duck even though I suspect it wasn't what you intended. The cake is great too - did you save us any?!!

 

[Hamish Gill]

Nice mate! I like the look of these!

I'll tell you how I got better at estimating distances ...
In the shop the tiles on the floor are 50cm ... I just think about those
Maybe measure the distance from where you sit in your living room to the window then pace it up and down a bit
To be fair though, for narrow dof stuff it's basically impossible!

 

[Dan Cattermole]

Excactly. Lol. It was just a rough estimated fluke shot on that first picture at f1.8, so pleased it turned out like that (out of about 20 efforts) Lol.

Sorry pete, no cake was saved. I didn't get a slice myself, too busy snapping, next thing you know all that was left was the cake board..... Gutted. But quite right there about the accidental focus, I do prefer it as you have described... Although it wasn't intentional.....

I also have another question in mind about focal lengths which I'll start a new thread on shortly.

 

[Vic Shaw]

I like the ' Walking the Dog' shot too. Nice conversion also.

Vic

 

[Hamish Gill]

Excactly. Lol. It was just a rough estimated fluke shot on that first picture at f1.8, so pleased it turned out like that (out of about 20 efforts) Lol.

Sorry pete, no cake was saved. I didn't get a slice myself, too busy snapping, next thing you know all that was left was the cake board..... Gutted. But quite right there about the accidental focus, I do prefer it as you have described... Although it wasn't intentional.....

I also have another question in mind about focal lengths which I'll start a new thread on shortly.

What's this question then? I'm intrigued!

 

[Darren Turner]

great set of images, sums up the day to a tea.......!!

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Some great shots there Dan - that first one is a beauty - I bet the family are after a shot or two!

Now about not saving us any cake.... LOL

 

[Thomas brookes]

the two girls faces on the left of the bouncie castle shot are awesome!!! haha gerat set mate i do feel sorry for you though no wonder your so feminine