The Saturday was Elodie’s Christening, which gathered family from all across Europe (well, England, France & Italy, anyway!) Service, followed by a bit of a do at my sister’s place (always reminds me of that show whenever I say it

Photos can be seen by clicking here, or on the photo in this post.

The Sunday was Emma’s first Communion, and shots from that will follow in the near future.

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1. Francesca’s Christening
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I’ve also edited together a video (shot by Louise) of the party, which was shot in glorious 2.35:1 panoramic/cinematic style format (none of this 16:9 TV widescreen nonsense – this is the real McCoy that you’d get at the cinema!) Watch it on YouTube below (or click a couple of times on the video itself to go to the YouTube page, where you’ll get the option to watch the full Hi-Def version, assuming you’ve got a fast link).

Finally, I’ve put together the video slideshow of the same photos in the album above:

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Spent Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago at my sister’s place for Emma and Lina’s birthday party (same day I took all the family portraits).

Click on the main image to go to the gallery of photos on SmugMug.

Below, you’ll also find a link to the video slideshow on YouTube.

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Well, most of the Christmas celebrations are now over, so the time is nigh to post photos from over the holiday season…

We start on Christmas Eve with a walk down into Lower Morden to look at the lights adorning all the houses down there – the road in question makes a huge community effort, and collects loads of money for charity through their efforts each year.

Christmas day, we opened some presents at home in the morning, then in the afternoon, went across to my sisters for Christmas dinner, and more presents.

Boxing day, we had Jan & Russell over in the morning for yet more presents, then everyone else over to our place, for yet another Christmas dinner in the afternoon, finishing the day with a huge family “Guitar hero – World Tour” session!

Finally, we have some shots from the next morning, when we went out with Francesca on her new bike for the first time. Click on the main photo to get to all the images….

For those interested, the lighting for all the indoor shots you see here was done with 2 or 3 (depending on location) SB800/600s on lighting stands, pointed straight up at the ceilings in the corners of the rooms, with a wide zoom setting (24mm). The ceiling bounce from multiple directions gave good lighting from any location in the room, with enough shadow from pretty much any angle to ensure things were still interesting. For example, in the following shot, two flashes were set up, one behind the subjects to the left of camera, and one behind the camera (also to the left). The wall to the right acted as a huge white reflector, providing a nice level of fill from the other two lights. The rear one also acted as a rim-light, with the main, soft light coming from the light behind the camera (which you can see in the reflection in the glass doors – sloppy framing on my part!)

If you want to read more, I used this Strobist article as a basis for my setups.

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The lights were switched very low, end eventually off, for most of the evening, so it wasn’t the most ideal shooting environment (I wanted to run without any flash to preserve the mood), but a fast (f/1.4) lens combined with the low light abilities of the D3 has provided some shots that I’m fairly pleased with.

Click on the image below to get to the photos:

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3. March 2008

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