Today the whole family went to the mall.  Our intent was to get new batteries for the flash, get haircuts, and play in the kiddie area.  We ended up buying an AF Micro-Nikkor 60mm f/2.8D lense, eating dinner and then finally visiting the kiddie play area at the Glen Burnie mall.  As you can see, it wasn’t quite the plan we had in mind.

Mommy and Daddy have been looking at macro lenses for a while now.  Mommy has been developing her skills quite rapidly, and she wanted to expand into closeup photographs.  Our friend Andrew at Ritz photo showed us the lense and we fell in love.  Then Mommy reminded Daddy that he forgot to get her a Mother’s Day gift:  hence the new lense.

The lense is incredibly easy to use in either manual or autofocus. In manual, its best to use this mode when going for extremely close up shots because the depth of field can be limited with such high accuracy.  The tight depth of field issue can be difficult for the autofocus to handle, even in center spot focus with our Nikon D200, so its best to keep it in manual when you are right up on the subject.

On the other hand, for longer ranges in photograpy, the autofocus works great. The powerful took is a true asset for something like portrait photography.  We even found that we like the time of response in the autofocus function when it is acquiring a new subject.

Daddy also found it to be a great teaching asset because the F-stop is excellent with its range of 2.8 to 32.  With the Nikon D200 in Aperture Mode, two photographs of the same subject at both ends of the F-stop can show how the change in the amount of light entering the camera is effected.  There is nothing like comparing it to an iris to explain such things!

Well, everyone can look forward to the lense helping us bring new and interesting photographs to everyone.  Too bad it can’t take a picture of the past where Daddy swears he did something for Mommy on Mother’s Day.

One of Johnny’s most used toys is the Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set made by Leap Frog. He received it as a Christmas toy. I can’t say I remember who exactly gave it to him, but he attacks it like it was a gift from heaven.

The Fridge Farm Magnetic Animal Set is applied directly to the refrigerator door with magnets embedded in each of the pieces. Batteries, which come included, power the base which provides the sounds and music once a piece or two has been inserted; the sound level is not to high as to take away from other activities in the house. None of the pieces show any wear and tear, even though Johnny throws them on the floor multiple times a day. All of the pieces are too large for him to swallow.

The only down side to this set of toys is the age range listed by the parent company. Johnny is 17 months old as of today, but still doesn’t have full dexterity to insert the pieces into the base properly without assistance. Leap Frog recommends the set for ages 1 to 3 years, which is fine if you don’t mind having most of the use in the toy being a collection of items to throw on the floor.

Overall, this is a nice toy for children. Just don’t be surprised if your child can’t get the full benefits from it till almost 2 years old.
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