This is another set of picture from far too long ago (you can see just how long ago when you notice that Don is in one of the photos, and they left on January 7th), that I always meant to post but for some reason didn’t quite find the time.  I’m also *slightly* embarassed as they were taken with the nice new G1 camera, but before I had any clue what I was doing with it.  The result was sadly under-exposed images.  It’s bloody tricky figuring out the manual controls of a camera.  Whenever I try and cheat and set the thing to Auto mode, the pictures are horrible.  First, the flash appears to be be a small nova, causing enormous and unsightly shadows of the boys, and yet somehow managing to underexpose the background.  But worse, the auto mode uses face detection, and whenever it detects a face, it switches to Portrait mode.  Portrait mode is all well and good for adults, but not all that helpful for children – they don’t sit still.  I have perfectly acceptable photos of adults at speeds as slow as 1/15th of a second, but anything slower than 1/60th of a second for the boys results in an obnoxious blur.  To top it off, the kit lens is all too slow, with a max f/stop of only 3.5.  A slow lens, with a need for high shutter speeds, and ISO performance that’s only really useable up to 800 (or 1600 if I never want to print them), and there’s no winning.  The nice flash that Marilyn bought me at Christmas helps enormously, as I can bounce it off the ceiling and avoid most of the flash problems.  The other solution would be a decent fast prime, but I haven’t been able to convince Katie that I should go and spend $300 on a new lens yet.  <sigh>

Oh, right, children.  I almost forgot…  Apparently we have two of them.  One’s a bit smaller, but reckless and uninhibited.  The other loves to be naked.  During our nighttime routine, we give the boys 15 minutes of “naked time”, which is really “nearly” naked time, as they’re legally required to retain their diapers at all times, lest we have a repeat of Nicholas’ gleeful jumping-in-the-poop incident.  The boys will be absolute buggers when we get home (starting to wonder if they aren’t angry at us for leaving them – at least Nicholas seems to be, anyway), and usually not all that eager for their dinner.  When we eat, they beg, or scream.  Then we strip them, and the world is suddenly a wonderful place, with merriment and hilarity in equal measure.  Our day starts with the quiet cuddle, holding the boys after we’ve gotten them out of their cribs, but before they’re ready to play.  It ends with squeals of manic delight, and an exhilirating foray into exhibitionism.