Michael Anttila's Picture Of The Week

Week Of January 15th, 2012

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This is a frame from a video I took last weekend. I call the video "An Afternoon With Dad". Angela had to go run some errands one Saturday afternoon, so I filmed some typical activities that we do from noon to 3pm to give you a small window into Aila's world.

I shot the video in full HD 1080 resolution, so if you have a good computer and network connection, you can crank the quality all the way up. I had to sacrifice a bit of quality in the compression though, because my internet connection is too slow to upload full quality videos to the internet... but I still think it turned out OK.

Technical details: This photo is a frame from a movie taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75.

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Week Of January 8th, 2012

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When you get to a certain age, it seems like everyone around you is pregnant. Fran and Jason are expecting their first little one in late January. On New Years Eve, Aila refused to go to sleep because she wanted to party with the rest of us. Here she is in her pajamas trying to feel kicks.

We have a betting pool going as to when the little one will be born. Angela picked the 12th, and I picked the 15th. As of now, Angela is out of the running, and it looks like I will be out of the running very soon now as well. Most of us thought the new baby would come early, but so far he is proving us wrong, one by one.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 65mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/30th of a second (with flash at -1 exposure compensation).

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Week Of January 1st, 2012

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Happy New Year! For New Years Eve this year we travelled to Newmarket for a party at Sandy and Teresa's house. Aila had a great time partying with us, and after she went to sleep we played TriBond and a Harry Potter-themed version of Clue, then counted down to 2012! We also started a pool to see who could predict the birth date, time, and weight of Fran and Jason's baby, who is due sometime in January.

By the way: You can see Aila's two teeth in this photo! She has become very good at using them, even though she only has two. I think her two top teeth are going to come in soon, so she will be able to tackle more difficult foods.

Technical details: This photo was taken by Angela with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 35mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/30th of a second (with flash at -1 exposure compensation).

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Week Of December 25th, 2011

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Merry Christmas everyone! We had a great time in Elora this year on Christmas Day. Grandma and Aiti both came to visit, and Christine and Aaron brought Jeremy, who was just under two weeks old! Luch also came over to celebrate Christmas with us.

Aila had a great time opening her gifts and playing with her new toys. Thanks to everyone who sent cards and gifts, and I hope everyone is having a great holiday season!

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 28mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/30th of a second (with flash at -1 exposure compensation).

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Week Of December 18th, 2011

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Just a few days after we visited Aunt Christine, she gave birth to little Jeremy! This week we went to visit Aila's new cousin. He is a little cutie, with a full head of hair!

Tomorrow is Christmas and we are all excited to see what lies under the tree tomorrow. I hope everyone has a great holiday!

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 35mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/80th of a second.

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Week Of December 11th, 2011

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This weekend we went to visit "Aunt Christine" and "Uncle Aaron". Since Christine's baby is due on December 22nd, she decided to host the Hammond family Christmas a little early this year. Aila opened her first Christmas gift from Aunt Christine and Uncle Aaron, which was a complete set of learning books for letters and numbers. Aila sure is lucky to have a teacher for an Aunt!

Of course we were very excited to visit Christine and see how she is doing in the last stages of her pregnancy. We can't wait for Aila to have another little cousin!

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + 17-40L at 24mm, ISO 3200, f/4 for 1/30th of a second.

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Week Of December 4th, 2011

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After visiting the Pioneer Village, we headed up to Waterloo to take in a modern Christmas concert by the Waterloo Concert Band It was my first time as an audience member, so I had the opportunity to take a photo of the band while it was playing. I never realized how impressive the stage looks at St. John's Lutheran Church from the middle of the room.

The concert was very nice, and the band sounded great. I can't wait to start playing with them again in the new year. Aila enjoyed the concert too, although she slept through the first few tunes. It was a great way to start off the Christmas season!

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + 17-40L at 40mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/60th of a second.

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Week Of November 27th, 2011

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We went to pioneer village at Doon Heritage Crossroads for "volunteer appreciation day". Since Angela volunteers for the WREST program, we had free admission for the day. We met up with Maika, Tanya, and Tanya's twin girls Maggie and Jo and spent a few hours experiencing a 1911 Christmas. Maike gave Aila some sleighbells to play with, and she had fun ringing them in front of an old fashioned fake Christmas tree in the German pioneer house.

We had a lot of fun exploring the village and we even took the horse and buggy taxi to get up to the church to sing Christmas Carols. It was neat to think that if you lived in the village back then, you could just walk up to the church and take in a concert on Sunday afternoon...

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + 17-40L at 40mm, ISO 3200, f/4 for 1/20th of a second.

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Week Of November 20th, 2011

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I will do a musical theme for the next few pictures in order to try to catch up. Aila has taken a liking to egg shakers. She likes the noise they make almost as much as she likes trying to fit them in her mouth.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 60mm, ISO 1600, f/2.8 for 1/100th of a second.

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Week Of November 13th, 2011

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This weekend we went to Niagara-on-the-Lake for Jen & Matt's wedding. Since Angela was Jen's "matron of honour", Aila and I spent most of the weekend hanging out together and helping Angela get ready. We stayed at the luxurious Queen's Landing hotel, which was very lovely. Aila even had lunch in the main dining room, overlooking the harbour. Definitely her fanciest meal yet!

It was nice to be back in the Niagara region again. I spent a couple of hours on Saturday driving around while Aila slept in the car. I saw a few new wineries that I hadn't seen before, so obviously things are constantly developing down there. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go into any of the wineries on this trip... maybe next time.

This is a photo of Aila on the bed in our very spacious hotel room. She enjoyed herself at first, but unfortunately as the weekend wore on, she started getting annoyed that we weren't at home. Luckily, the wedding marks the end of a very busy three month period for us. We are all looking forward to settling down for the next little while and taking it easy.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 53mm, ISO 800, f/2.8 for 1/128th of a second.

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