Musings

We’ve not gone by The Minton for our usual weekly visit. The weather here has been both humid and hazy, making for any trip outdoors a relatively unpleasant experience. We’ll try to squeeze in one last visit next week though, assuming if Ling hasn’t delivered yet.

The new 17mm f1.8 lens got a good run-in during the weekend morning, with a few hundred exposures taken during our usual Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf brunch at Greenwich. Like the other fast lens I’ve picked up for the m4/3s system, depth of field is very shallow when shooting wide-open. It’s not too much of a worry when I’m shooting either of the two girls straight face-on, but it can be a real challenge if I’m off-angle by any degree. Color rendition seems very slightly less warm than the 14mm f2.5G but Ling at least likes its very natural color representation.

Mommy and Hannah.

Her activity books are a wonderful means of occupying herself while the both of us have brunch.

More cute conversations with Hannah too. We were at Fairprice a few days ago when a middle-aged lady approached Ling at the sauces and condiments, asking “Auntie ar, can you tell me where the sesame oil is?”

Ling turned slightly off-color at being addressed ‘Auntie’ (for our Ang Mo bud, the term is usually used respectfully for someone who’s old) but nonetheless helped the lady. But Hannah picked that up and for the rest of our grocery trip at the store, went: “AUNTIE!!!” at Ling LOL.

And Hannah has been looking forward to her coming baby brother, due anytime from a week from now. When in the car, she had this to share when we asked how she was going to care for him.

H: “I will take care of 弟弟 (little brother). I will help put him to bed. I will help him go to the toilet. Yep. I will help him change change clothes. I will help him change diapers too. I will also buy him orange juice.”

We should have recorded those promises she made. With a big sister helper like this, why would we need parents.=)

Just after shower. The humid weather has caused her lips to cracked.

We had a rather eventul last week, starting off when our girl accidentally left behind her Pluto – yep the orange plush toy you see in many pictures here on our blog – at a toy store in Compass Point, only realizing it when we were on our way home. As soon as that happened, she bawled loud enough for the whole Sengkang to hear. Except that it was confined to the car – you can imagine what a din that was!

It was a teachable moment for us as parents. We impressed upon her that it was her responsibility to take care of her toys, and that we’d only get her a new Pluto if she showed to us over the next few days she was able to do this. I secretly went by the store nonetheless the next day to pick it up after Ling called the night before to report its loss.

Thing is though; those lessons will take a while to stick. Just over this weekend, Ling took me aside and asked that I withhold several of Hannah’s entertainment privileges as she’d been misbehaving. E.g. talking back to Mommy and leaving her toys on the floor. And I obliged, though that’d mean I now have to log into Hannah’s Hello Kitty Town on her behalf and to keep up her town and crops there LOL.

On the overall, Hannah’s still very well-behaved though, and she at least is responsive to the both of us when we have to discipline her. She’s not into tantrums (yet?), and seems to genuinely show remorse when we take her aside and educate her on responsible and proper behavior. Interestingly too, while she enjoys her entertainment privileges, e.g. Mickey Mouse Cluhouse, Angry Birds (!), and Hello Kitty Town, she doesn’t pine for them too much when they’re taken away from her. She instead goes about occupying herself with books, more plush toys, and builds and stacks things up, like this:

A Facebook friend who saw the picture immediately guessed that she got inspired by Angry Birds Rio.=)

Oh yes; all the pictures here were taken again on the 14mm. The next two turned out very well, especially the latter with a mix of strong primary colors.=)

Having a cup of warm milo during weekend brunch with grandparents.

Munching on strawberries.

Hannah and I had such a great time doing a 2 hour leisure exploration of our neighborhood last weekend we went for it again last evening, this time round with Mommy coming along. Ling’s feeling all of five months pregnant now though and was a little nervous if she was going to be able to keep up with the two of us – especially after I said we were going to walk to Compass Point “using the long route” to which she worryingly replied “… er, what long route…??”

The E-M5 alongside the new pancake lens did the picture-taking this time. The lens is quite a wonder; compact, focuses reliably and sharp right in the center. It’s just a little on the wide side though for casual shots like these, so I had to take care not to have frame and keep Hannah right in the center and the frame edges clear.

Without hair clips, she looks like a little China doll now.

We counted the number of playgrounds we walked through – and eventually it was 7 on our way to dinner, 4 more on the way back.

Our girl the chatterbox – who gave us a running commentary of everything she was doing, looking and seeing.

She still can’t put both feet on this balancing plank yet though.

She ran and accidentally fell at the carpark near her nanny’s place midweek, scraping her kneecap. Hopefully there’s no scaring.

Still teaching her the do’s and dont’s of crossing the roads here: “Look right, then look left, then look right again before crossing.”

Having fun with her Crocs She took the right one off to scratch her ankle a bit.

Having her first taste of ice-kachang. She loved it!

Another lens came in through the post – the Panasonic Lumix G 14mm F2.5. The lens is a somewhat old model for the micro four-thirds system, first appearing in 2010, and is available in both retail packaging form and also bundled with Panasonic m4/3s cameras. The former costs quite a bit at about nearly S$400, but the bundled version is routinely sold used here for half that price. That’s the option I went with but picking up a new copy on eBay, and it arrived just yesterday.

The ultra small compact pancake lens returns a sleek profile to the E-M5.

To begin with; the lens is really small and light too – even more so than the 20mm f1.7 I sold away last month. The lens focuses briskly on the E-M5 if ever so slightly slower seemingly compared to the recently acquired 25mm f1.4, is pretty sharp in the frame center, and has just some slight barrel distortion. The widest aperture won’t give the degree of subject isolation and bokeh that one can get with the f1.4 lens, but it’s still fine for me.

Some first pictures. Ling was at work for a weekend event in school, so it was time for daddy and daughter bonding again.:)

Shot wide-open. The lens doesn’t offer resolutions as high as the other primes I’ve got, but it’s still pretty good.

Occupying herself with coloring activities.