Day (40) of 365

Can you see the that little baldy spot on Aqilah’s forehead? I shall explain coz I don’t think that I have. In Islam, there is this religious doings for newborn baby called Aqiqah. It basically means to celebrate for the newborn baby by slaughtering lambs or cows and then to shave the baby’s head clean. Now what happened was that the one that was supposed to shave my niece’s hair was a religious man who happened to be old. As he was cutting the hair, we could see that the hand was trembling!… we could not let anything happen to the baby so we stopped it and thought that it should be done later :D.

It is pretty difficult to have my niece look directly into the camera so candid is the way to go!. I always experiment with many angles and see which one looks more natural and distinctive.

Camera settings: ISO 800 | 24-105@105mm | f/4.0 | 1/30 sec.

Day (39) of 365

I am pretty sure that Aqilah is trying to say: “What up, Uncle!”. She is getting chubbier by days, how cute.

She does not actually look as chubby real life, maybe it is the camera effect because I zoom in to close to her face. But it looks cute though… Babies are supposed to be chubby, otherwise adults like myself cannot pinch their chubby cheek :D.

Camera settings: ISO 800 | 24-105@105mm | f/4.0 | 1/80 sec.

Day (38) of 365

Sometimes I wonder what under 6 month babies think about everyday. Aqilah seems to have a lot in her mind already. I am sure that she will be a smart girl when she’s grown up!.

The toys on the bouncy chair makes a great foreground. I experimented with different angles; took one with Aqilah’s face inside the circle too but it kinda squeezed the face a bit too much. This one is just right as it isolated the face inside the toys.

Camera info: ISO 800 | 24-105@60mm | f/4.0 | 1/25 sec.

Day (37) of 365

BLUR WARNING! Most of the time I delete blurry pictures right on the camera. But this time, I am glad that I decided to do otherwise. Aqila does not smile often and when she does the picture is blurry… ouch!. What matters is the moment though, and thats the first rule of photography: “Capture the moment”. I should really upgrade my camera to one with much higher ISO (mine is maxed out at 1600). If you have unused one, Canon DSLR that is that can go beyond ISO 1600, fell free to send it to my house :D. Happy to pay the delivery :D. Anyways, I am gonna cheat a little here :P. The next 3 pictures are taken from 8th February. Did not take any photographs between 5th and 8th.

Took the picture inside. Could have used ISO 1600 but am prety sure the image would have came out blurry too.

Camera info: ISO 800 | 24-105@45mm | f/4.0 | 1/20 sec.

Day (35) of 365

Had been messing around with my speedlights. I have always wanted to do one of those half lit face kinda shot. The beard is 3 days old so I thought I should give it a go. It is not as easy as what the strobist article says :D. I let myself got flashed so many times, it nearly blinded me. No pain no gain right?

I really don’t know how to explain the strobist info :D. I experimented with the power and zoom mode until I got the right exposure. As far as I can remember, it was set to 1/4 of the power.

Camera settings: ISO 100 | 24-105@88mm | f/8.0 | 1/125 sec.

Strobist info: YN-560 | 1/4 power @105mm | 38″ umbrella camera left.

Day (34) of 365

I never get tired taking pictures of Aqilla. She always give different reactions and poses. Today, she is enjoying her bouncer; somekind of a baby chair that moves up and down. Check out her earring if you haven’t noticed it yet.

Love the blue texture of the bouncer. Took the shot from the top as the bouncer was placed on the ground. Aqilla moves about when she sleeps so I always give her time to change poses.

Camera settings: ISO 800 | 24-105@40mm | f/4.0 | 1/6 sec.

Day (33) of 365

The strobist equipment I ordered yesterday has arrived!. Had been reading about strobist and I felt that it was time for me to try it myself so I got myself a speedlight, a trans-receiver, a shoot-through umbrella and its holder. Canon speedlights are so expensive! Why get a canon speedlights if you can get one 4 times cheaper than the 430 EXII and 7 times cheaper than the 580 EX II! Great! It’s the Yong Nuo YN-560. You cannot put it on TTL mode though. But strobist is about using the off-camera flash manually so why pay more. I also got the Yong Nuo RF-602 TransReceiver cheap! They work great!

Decided to do a HDR image to bring the details on the strobist equipments. Put the camera on a tripod and did a 3 image exposure of -2, 0 and 2.

Camera settings: ISO 400 | 24-105@88mm | f/4.0 | 3.2, 0.8, 13 sec.

 

Day (32) of 365

Aqilla went to get her ears pierced. Better to do it while she is young rather than later. It is the first time that I actually see baby car seat in action. I had always thought that the seat should be placed facing the front. Guess I had been wrong all this time. It does kinda make sense to place it facing the back though, so the middle passengers can easily monitor the baby and in case of sudden break the car sear would act as shock absorber for the baby’s head.

Had to get myself inside the rear of the car. Fortunately, the seats at the back could be folded to the side so it was easy for me to get into position. The sun hit the left side of the car and it gave a nice ambient light on the right side of the baby.

Camera settings: ISO 400 | 24-105@45mm | f/4.0 | 1/250 sec.

Day (31) of 365

Aqilla opens her eyes more often now. She seems to be scanning the house everytime she is awake. Curiosity is always a good thing :). Peek-a-boo!

When photographing babies, make sure that the shutter speed is fast enough to capture sudden reaction of the baby. Most of the time that priceless expression only lasts for a second, so have your eyes on the viewfinder and finger on the clicky button all the time. I really love the IS (Image Stabilization) feature on my lens. It lets me hand hold the camera even at 1/13 sec of shutter speed. Wonderful!

Camera settings: ISO 1600 | 24-105@105mm | f/4.0 | 1/13 sec.

 

Day (30) of 365

I told you I will be taking many pictures of Aqilla. This one is an image of her inside the baby box. Tiny cushion for the little baby.

Taken in the morning when the sun was going up. The sun from the window hits the baby box  from Aqilla’s  back side. Played with the angle to avoid tediousness of the head shots :).

Camera settings: ISO 400 | 24-105@105mm | f/4.0 | 1/15 sec.