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I feel like posting. Blah, I dunno.
This is my cousin Jamie. She has this remarkable ability to smile for a camera by innate reflex. She doesn't even have to see the lens or hear the whir of an autofocus, she just knows, and immediately turns her head and smiles appropriately. What can I say, the kid is photogenic.
This one, on the other hand, requires divine intervention 98% of the time to coax out a decent snap (because she insists on making ridiculous faces). This is my little sister, spoiled brat Diva of the family. And I love her to death. Although last weekend she told me she was going to stab me with a knife for not going out to dinner with her and Dad. Kids these days.
Don't really know why I'm posting these. Most of the folks I associate with don't even like kids. Truth be told I don't really like kids either, barring those in the family because... well, they're family. Plus, kids are fun. Unlike self-conscious tightwad adults who see a camera and shrink away like a vampire faced with a crucifix, kids don't pay any mind if you take photos of them generally, or are happy to pause a moment and smile. Trying to take a photo of my mother is like trying to convince a child a needle won't hurt. But my nieces, nephews, cousins and sister are more than happy to smile. And kids make for pretty great subjects, too, even if you don't like them due to their typically rambunctious behavior.
These few snaps were made during my grandmother's birthday. We had it at my Aunt's house and there's a little playground nearby. Not one of the plastic "safety oriented" bastardizations of the classic playset those born after 1999 were forced to suffer. No, this thing was wrought iron and could probably kill you if you fell down hard enough or got twisted. New Age Parents hate these things given their bizarre need to shelter and protect their children from everything not synthetic or fuzzy, but Real Parents go out of their way to take kids to such death traps because it's a lesson through play on how not to be stupid and kill yourself in a Hazardous Environment (sometimes also referred to as Real Life). Not to mention these things, with their contorted and distorted bars and 9 foot high dead drops, are just plain fun.
Was shooting my D40x the whole time, only took maybe 50 or so shots. They all came out good, but these were the 3 that stood out as "great". At first I was running around with my 55-200mm VR and used the pop-up flash for fill, then I switched to the 35mm f/1.8 and the SB-400. You can probably tell which photos used which lens. Had to use a pretty high f-stop since it was a sunny day and the sync speed on the D40x is only 1/200 (lame, but not horrible). Could've used a neutral density filter to open the lenses up for smoother depth of field, but... who cares? I certainly didn't, I was having fun shooting my sister and cousin while they were competing to see who could do the monkey bars faster.