Xiaobudian playing with water again

No No, this will not be a solely camera banter post but sort of a hybrid type. You see, I bought an almost brand new with box Minolta telephoto lens, the 75-300mm f4.5-5.6 (D) lens 2nd hand so I just got to play with it right...


Waiting for her favourite aunt to come along

Some explanations on those technicalities.
75-300mm is the focal length of the lens. This determines the angle of view for your photos and the zoom (300/75 = 4x). For Alpha there is a crop factor of 1.5x or this is a 112.5-450mm equivalent lens.

f4.5-5.6 is the minimum aperture of the lens. A smaller number denotes a larger aperture (or bigger hole for taking photos) An aperture of 1 means your lens open fully wide when it takes a photo. An aperture of about 1.4 means the diameter of your lens is 1.4 times the diameter of the largest hole it can open. By simple ratio of length and area, f1.0 will have twice the area of f1.4, in other words it is twice as bright.

The (D) denotes this is a lens with a chip that supports ADI flash and it provides the camera with information such as the distance from the subject as you shoot.


Splash!!!

So I took the Alpha to the swimming pool and make full use of its telephoto capabilities. I had as much fun as using my H1 previously though the Alpha will draw more attention than my H1 did. I like the shallower depth of field that makes the Alpha photos stand out more than my H1 could ever do within the same focal length (35mm equivalent).


Running kids? No problem

One of the biggest challenge in shooting kids is that they are fast! And the infinite burst mode and the fast focusing enabled me to catch this shot while tracing xiaobudian. Not perfect but this is the keeper among those few burst shots. Kids are always full of expression and it's great to stand some distance away to capture these shots without them noticing.


Xiaobudian and her Elmo tee

Enough of camera banter, back to the everyday stuff. So Xiaobudian did not go swimming for a long long time and she refuses to come out of the pool, claiming that she wants to play in the pool in more than one occasion. Ohh... isn't she cute. And when we pull her out of the water to shower and subsequently leave home, this was how she looked.


Yuxin's first trip to the pool with her grandpa (and possibly grandpa's first trip to the pool in 20 years)...

Of course, I won't forget the little princess of our family, Yuxin, and brought her to the pool too. It was her first trip there and she was a little afraid of the water initially. That lasted for less than 5 minutes and is followed by an hour of fun in the pool. Kids...

Would had loved to put more photos up here but Yuxin's mum might kill me since most of the shots includes her and she isn't really fond in showing off her swimwear to the rest of the world. So I shall hold my peace till I get offical approval or some 免死金牌.


Xiaobudian @ Sentosa

In other non-related photographs, this is Xiaobudian playing with water taken way back in the trip to Sentosa. That was my first shoot with the Alpha and this is the keeper I got from my kit lens.

singapore Swimming pool photoblog sony a100 alpha