The Great Grandparents

Because Marie is seventeen years younger than me, both Holly and Devon have the joy of knowing their Great Grandparents Ralph and Annie, aka God and The Queen, who live in a tucked-away corner of Shafton in a house where orchids grow, and where there’s a big tub of chocolate biscuits. Here’s Annie and Holly listening to Marie apologise about something:

Nikon D3S, Nikon 50mm f 1.8 prime lens, 1/320 at f 4.0, ISO 800, hand held no flash. Note Holly’s expression: I think this was the first time she’d ever heard her Mum sound apologetic, in over six months on the planet. All I will say, Holly, is make the most of it, and don’t expect another one until at least junior school.

That same afternoon, Ralph the Shafton puppet-master placed his great-granddaughter between his razor-sharp trouser creases and tested her parents’ claim that she loves to stand and lock her knees … pretty early in some things is our Holls, and pretty late in others – like laughing, for example. She smiles all the time, but the closest we’ve come to a laugh was the other day when she watched her Mum throw some nice arrows at Devon’s new dartboard. Mum nearly hit the bullseye, but it was her ladylike Eric Bristow impersonation which – almost – got Holly giggling for the first time. Note I didn’t say Jocky Wilson, because I value my cobblers and we might need them to give Holly and Devon another brother or sister:

Nikon D3S, Nikon 24-70mm f 2.8 lens at 38mm, 1/80 at f 6.3, ISO 5000, hand held no flash. Unlike the previous picture, this shows the D3s working a lot harder, up at ISO 5000 and coping well. Three months after getting it, I really don’t worry about pushing it up to anything under ISO 6400, which is pretty astonishing. This picture simply wouldn’t have been possible – in any reasonable quality – three years ago. The D3s has just pushed the bar even further, after the D3 first reinvented low-light photography. I have hardly used my flashgun since getting the new camera: it’s not quite redundant, but I use it an awful lot less now. The result is a lot more reality, the snapshots you take are much more accurate representations of how the scene looked to the naked eye.

Note the change of bib in the picture above. If I had shares, I’d put it in a bib-making company these days. I never knew just how essential to daily life the humble bib is. We have amassed what seems like a thousand bibs, which are all steadily being stained the unmistakable orange hue of regurgitated Organic Carrot & Sweet Potato…

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