To recreate that effect, I think you just need to give booze to your subjects!

I like them all but I love number 4.

As for being rushed by your partner, I've found that persistence (or just sheer bloody-mindedness) has gradually built up my wife's tolerance - I can now get quite a few shots off before the inevitable "can we just go now?"

I have a Metz 48 AF-1 which is a very good value flash. Tilt/swivel head, P-TTL, wireless slave etc. Only negative is that it's a bit cryptic to set up so I've stuck a label on the top of mine to remind me what all the stuff on the LCD means!

Just thought I'd chuck in another suggestion - I have had great success chasing my 18 month old around with a Tamron 17-50 f2.8. It's an excellent lens all round. Very sharp images, quick and accurate focusing, useful zoom range, compact and it's even (relatively) cheap.

I agree with you on using flash for baby photos. So long as you bounce it (or use a lightsphere I guess, but I don't have one) it doesn't seem to bother the little ones too much and means you don't end up with an SD card full of motion blur where you thought your kid was. Also you can get away with higher apertures so you get a little more leeway on the focussing too!

Overall, I think the most useful thing to do when photographing your kids is to keep the camera out so they get used to it and act naturally, rather than just running over and trying to stick mucky fingers all over you lens. Or maybe it's just my son that does that!

As others have said, the trade off in zooms v primes is one of quality and speed vs. flexibility, but it's worth remembering that it's not a simple choice of one or the other.

Some zooms give very good quality but are only slightly more flexible than primes, e.g. my new Sigma 10-20 which I have started to treat as a 10mm with a fall back option of 20mm for when I want a quick shot that isn't crazy-wide, while others are extremely flexible but not as good quality as more limited zooms or primes, e.g. a 55-300 vs 50-135.

I remember reading/hearing somewhere that a lot of good photographers will tend to only use specific settings on a zoom, in effect treating them as a convenient pack of primes. I'd like to say I do that, but I tend to lack the required level of forward planning

Thanks everyone - it really is friendly here!

I'm in Bicester, which is unfortunately not quite as scenic as New Zealand! If I drive for twenty minutes I can probably find a hill...

I do have some more local photos though. I'll have to have a dig through and add some.

Hello!

After quite a while lurking hereabouts, I figured it was time to get more involved! My name is Simon, and I have been a Pentax addict for 5 years now .

I started off with a K110D in 2007 which I bought without properly researching it, so it rapidly turned into a K100D so I could benefit from SR. Since 2010 my camera of choice has been the K-x, which I am trying to find fault with to justify an upgrade to a K-5!

I'm very much a generalist when it comes to my choice of subjects, but for the last 18 months my photography has mainly centred on my little boy. A small selection of my non-family photos are on my terribly under-used Flickr account here.

Hopefully I can live up to my good intentions and get properly stuck-in to the forum and join in the fun!