She’s On Solids
Big news: Holly’s on solids. Mum’s orders. Here she is contemplating this state of affairs:
Honestly Mum, you don’t have to, on my account.
Oh, but I do, Holly. Now open wide:
Now we’ve jumped that hurdle, it’s not all that bad:
In fact, it’s rather good:
Next stop, Steve’s Chinese takeaway down on Pontefract Road. Dad’ll take me …
The Dog and Dummy
A day in Clapham, South London, with Karen and her girls. Teddy the dog, the newcomer – and the reason for the title of this blog – later, but first here’s my own two girls sharing a peaceful moment:
I’ll add the photo details later, but this was a Nikon D3S day, low light, experimenting. My idea of a good time, especially when so well fed by Karen and her table groaning with as much buffet as you could want.
Here’s Holly and Devon, brother and sister, tuning into each other as they often do:
You can tell that Devon found his spot on the sofa, and the TV remote. Zoned in, the grown ups can do what they may, I’m watching The Last Airbender:
I think he might grow up into quite a handsome fella one day:
And here’s Teddy, Shitzu-Cavalier King Charles cross, the new king of the house:
And here’s the dog and dummy. That’s it, Holly’s lost that one. Teddy now goes for walks around town with his dummy:
Small Boys, Big Futures
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to rumble. Two beloved boys. In the red corner, my stepson Devon Green, pride of South Yorkshire. In the blonde corner, my nephew Sean Hiseman, representing leafy Hampshire. The venue: the lovely home where my brother Robin, his wife Michelle and their brilliant kids Sean and Naomi live in Church Crookham, near Fleet, down the M3:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 50mm f 1.8 prime lens, 1/125 at f 3.2, ISO 12800, hand held no flash. On a wintry, slippery Wednesday evening just before Christmas 2009, Marie and I took Devon and Holly on the 3 hour drive to see the folks, to swap prezzies, and most importantly to transport my Mum to her rendezvous point with Hiseman brother #3, Mark. Not being one for bedlam, Mum had decided to spend Christmas in the civilised company of Mark and Tracey in their Kent mansion, last seen here in this blog. As it happened, on that icy winter’s night Mark’s life-long devotion to frugality came back to haunt him: his refusal to buy a bag of salt meant he couldn’t get his car up a hill, rendering Mum stranded for 24 hours at Rob and Michelle’s place.
Back to the picture, and the boys – who love to play together – prepare for battle. Sean, a gentle sweet soul, hasn’t really got the hang of controlled aggression yet; Devon the fireball has it to spare, but only in jest. He’s a truly loving young lad who likes to cuddle even more than he likes to punch. On a technical note, at a ridiculous ISO of 12,800 this picture should look rotten - noisy, lifeless colours, smudgy edges – but this is the new Nikon D3S we’re talking about, so a smashing spontaneous moment is captured in the warm colours of a cosy living room (roaring real fire out of shot to the right).
Below, the fight escalates. The D3S and the little Nikon 50mm 1.8 prime are working very hard together to get anything at all out of the dimly-lit room:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 50mm f 1.8 prime lens, 1/100 at f 3.2, ISO 12800, hand held no flash. I was shooting JPEGs, as usual (I’m lazy), with a little post-production in Lightroom 2.6 (which is a really good (and cheap) upgrade) and my old faithful, Paint Shop Pro 8. The D3S makes natural, real-life indoor photography so much easier: with a flash, this scene would look totally different.
Michelle and Rob had prepared a sumptuous table with cold meats, hot jacket potatoes, and all the trimmings. Gorgeous. We almost fell out over a lack of salad cream and Branston pickle, but Holly started crying and my attention shifted from condiments to babies. Here, Devon is probably trying to text his new girlfriend, Taylor, who announced she wanted to go out with him the day before school broke up before the Christmas hols. Apparently he has punched above his weight with Taylor: she played Mary in the school play, and his mate Joel has been after her for years:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 50mm f 1.8 prime lens, 1/100 at f 1.8, ISO 12800, hand held no flash. The purists will point out all sorts of inadequacies with this picture, and you can see the bokeh in the background is struggling against the noise (which is the year’s most geeky phrase), but really at 12,800 this is a far better result than I could achieve before with the Nikon D300 – which is a super enthusiast camera, and excellent up to around 1600 ISO. But the remarkable D3S beats it by three or four stops, easily.
Upstairs, Sean’s bedroom floor is dominated by his Lego creations. I might get onto that subject on another day, in another blog, but for now let’s just say that we might have a bit of genius on our hands in young Sean. He’s showing clear signs of knowing how things fit together, following complex Lego instructions far quicker and better than I could, and more importantly he takes the trouble to learn about where things come from, their history, their reason to be. He’s already got a stunning memory for these details. And he’s into ships, which puts him right into my good books. Given that his highly smart Mum and Dad are giving him all the right chances to develop (and the fact that Robin is a creative-minded golf course architect), the chances that he’ll end up building and designing things when he gets older are quite high. We bought him a kit to build a battery-powered internal combustion engine for Christmas. I have no doubt that he’s already converted it to a diesel, or perhaps it’s now running on LPG.
So here are Sean, Devon and little Naomi up on the bunk bed, while Andy treads on Sean’s lego trying to take yet another picture:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8 lens at 14mm, 1/80 at f 3.2, ISO 12800, hand held no flash. Rob and Michelle have had their challenges with Sean and particularly little Naomi, who has DiGeorge Syndrome, but all the hard work has paid off as they are super kids. Devon and Sean are very different, but they have one big thing in common – character. They’re not dull, they’re bright. It’ll be fun to see who they become.
If It’s Christmas, It Must Be Royston
After five years I have spotted a distinct trend. While others may head for Necker Island, Gstaad or maybe a romantic few days in Venice, I tend to spend at least some time every Christmas with Marie’s grandma Jean, in the beautiful resort spa town of Royston.
Known for its picturesque coke works, Royston also boasts the finest collection of closed pubs in South Yorkshire. Here we see a local wearing traditional head gear:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8 lens at 20mm, 1/125 at f 3.5, ISO 800, hand held no flash. Note that local #2, standing to left of picture, is engaged in another traditional Christmas ritual known as ’supping’.
Here we find that the headgear does in fact form part of a complete casual ensemble:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8 lens at 14mm, 1/160 at f 2.8, ISO 640, hand held no flash. Known as ‘The Michael Jackson’, this is a common mating pose struck by local youths in the hope that they might attract a suitable dance partner. Sadly, the aphrodisiac effects of the pose cannot be directed accurately, are therefore difficult to control. This often results in unwanted attention from random women, chemically drawn by the highly potent ‘Jackson’. Here we see one such specimen in mid-mating dance:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8 lens at 18mm, 1/125 at f 5.6, ISO 1000, hand held no flash. Note how the youngster is remaining polite despite the unwelcome advances of the local mare.
Here we catch the hostess Jean herself in a characteristically demure moment:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8 lens at 14mm, 1/400 at f 2.8, ISO 1600, hand held no flash. Jean is given free rein to express her opinions once a year, at Christmas, and her candour is boosted by knowing that standing on guard, at all times, is the imposing figure of security dog Charlie:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8 lens at 17mm, 1/200 at f 5.6, ISO 1000, hand held no flash. Charlie’s face is designed to remain wet and bedraggled long after his last drink of water, and indeed he has won awards for his aromatic dog food beard.
In 2009 the Royston party gained a new crew member; namely, the baby Holly who, despite her tender age of just fifteen weeks, can be seen here casting the terrible annual end-of-visit spell of silence on the talkative Jean – thus dooming the Royston matriarch to another 364 days of complete muteness:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8 lens at 20mm, 1/250 at f 3.5, ISO 800, hand held no flash. Note the fierce concentration and the experimental ‘Hiseman’ tartan kilt, worn in recognition of the Scottish-based Balfron family chapter, unable once again to attend the traditional Royston ceremony and as always sadly missed.
The final reckoning was – as it is every year – one of much generosity shown by Jean, and of another emotion-soaked, laughter-filled hour or two in the company of one of England’s finest raconteurs:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8 lens at 14mm, 1/60 at f 5.6, ISO 1000, hand held no flash. Back row: Jean Shepherd, John and Bev Oakley, Craig Oakley. Middle row: Devon Green, Marie Hiseman, Natalie Asquith (Craig’s girlfriend – good luck Nat). Front row: Holly Hiseman.
You Looking At Me?
If only I could teach her to play poker. 4 month old babies like Holly give great unblinking stares, far better than mums and dads:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 24-70mm f 2.8 lens, 1/640 at f 2.8, ISO 3200, hand held no flash.
Step aside, Travis Bickle. Note that ISO number, 3200, and note the lack of noise. This is the awesome D3S firing on all cylinders, with the 24-70 2.8 lens its ideal partner.
Holly 14 Weeks
Holly’s Dad (me) was testing out a new bit of kit – what better excuse to laze around for hours and play with our daughter, who by now is getting used to the sight of a big old lens:
Nikon D3S, Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8 lens at 14mm, 1/30 at f 5.6, ISO 3200, hand held no flash.
Nikon D3S, Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8 lens at 24mm, 1/400 at f 2.8, ISO 2000, hand held no flash.
Nikon D3S, Nikon 14-24mm f 2.8 lens at 20mm, 1/80 at f 4.5, ISO 3200, hand held no flash.
Nikon D3S, Nikon 50mm f 1.8 prime lens, 1/1000 at f 1.8, ISO 12800, hand held no flash.
All four pictures are testament to the incredible light-gathering ability of the new Nikon D3S. The last shot, in particular, was taken in extremely low light, yet there is still enough sharpness to clearly catch the sparkle in Holly’s eyes. Perhaps even more impressively, picture three of the four retains solid, appealingly creamy colours despite the high ISO – a quality well beyond the capabilities of my second camera body, the otherwise excellent Nikon D300.
This ability to capture spontaneous moments like these, in truly representative hues, makes the Nikon D3S possibly the world’s finest picture-taking machine.
Outdoors Chick
Marie and I took Holly on one of her first big walks today, around the picturesque Newmillerdam, near Wakefield. Again I’ll add the words another time – but here’s the pictures:
It’s a lovely place for a walk, ideal to work up an appetite for the Sunday lunch:
She did very well, only bawled her eyes out for the last five minutes…
Holly 11 Weeks
To family and friends who look at these pages, I apologise for not being able to do many updates recently – things have been a bit busy. I’ll add the normal commentary when I can, but I think more pics of little Holly will definitely make up for it. Here she is just short of her 3 month birthday:
She’s getting the hang of smiling… here she is the previous evening, on a night out at Frankie & Benny’s with her Mum and Dad:
She was brilliant all night, until Dad wanted to take a picture. Then she turned quizzical, and then the volume went WAY up.
Next morning, she’s still wondering what on earth Dad is up to:
That’s her favourite bug-eyed friend. Holly’s wonderful big eyes could out-Bug any soft toy…
More Holly
A couple of new pictures of lovely Holly, who is 2 months old today. I’ll add the commentary later…
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