andrewlighten.com

Big Girl on the playground at Geelong earlier today.

Taken first thing this morning. These boys are settling in really well.

Lisa and I have agreed that it’s actually pretty hard to get a decent close-up photo of an Alpaca’s face.  There are so many different angles and textures, and any slight bit of softness of focus shouts at you from the rooftops. This is made worse by the fact that they’ve got a fairly long head, so unless you want to be very selective in focus (which doesn’t look good for these boys) you need to stop down a little more than you’d like to – and that of course slows the shutter speed, so you’re more likely to pick up any movement. It’s hard to balance these things and get it right.

Here’s an example. This is Maverick with mud and hay fragments stuck over his face. The main area of his face is ok, but his nose is very soft as his ears are slightly soft (consistent with the fact that focus falls away more gently behind the focal point an in front of it).

We had a day out at Geelong today. We went down there so we could pick up a few presents for some birthday parties Adelaide is going to over the next few weeks, but we also took the opportunity to drop down to Eastern Beach. We had a late lunch of fish and chips in a park near the beach, then wandered along the foreshore.

The kid’s pool is part of the bigger ocean pool at the beach and has a brilliant fountain as its centrepiece.

After spending some time on the playground we went back to the car via some of the artwork along the foreshore.

We’re lucky to have some decent green grass at home at the moment but the lush grass on the hill around the carvings was great fun for the kids to roll around in.