A baby and a telephoto lens: a sandboxing challenge

In computer security, the term “sandbox” refers to separating running programs. In contrast, here I am talking about keeping up with a 14-months-old baby playing in an actual physical sandbox, while trying to photograph her with a telephoto lens.

Last week, while my wife was immersed in a marathon exam marking session, my daughter and I went for a walk in the Mount Douglas Park. I took the camera with a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8L IS USM lens, so I could practice shooting with it. In terms of physical bulk, this lens is not much larger than a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM lens, which I am used to, but the fixed focal length and the relatively more shallow depth of field give it a noticeably different feel. I really like the beautiful bokeh produced when shooting with a wide-open aperture. One neat feature of the 300mm lens is its ability to focus as close as 1.5 m, which makes it quite useful for macro shots. I played with it a little bit and took some photos of a family of mushrooms, while the little one was sleeping in her stroller. She woke up just as we reached the playground.

To take appealing pictures of children, one should generally try bringing the camera down to the same level with them whenever possible. The playground at the Mount Dog park is perfect for this, as it has a sloping lawn on one side. I could simply walk down the lawn and become effectively closer to the level of the sandbox, without having to lay down on wet grass.

But here is the sandboxing challenge. As of about two weeks ago, my daughter became exceedingly mobile, as she somehow decided that crawling is not cool anymore and discovered her ability to run very fast by tilting her body in the general direction of travel and allowing her legs to try to keep her from falling. Normally, my wife and I can catch up with her quite easily to keep her from crashing into various objects, eating things that should not be eaten, and destroying flowers and houseplants. This time, however, there were two issues: a) it was just me looking after her, and b) the fixed 300 mm focal length forced me to stay at least 10 meters away from her while taking pictures. My daughter was delighted at her apparent independence and ran around the playground. I was glad when she decided to sit down and play with the sand. Just as I thought that my little photo session was going on brilliantly, she decided to check what this sand substance tasted like and put an entire handful of it in her mouth. It all happened in less than a second, while I was left to passively observe it from the opposite end of the sandbox, through my long telephoto lens.

Fortunately, she didn’t find the sand particularly tasty and spit out most of it right a way. I spent the next fifteen minutes or so getting the rest of the sand out of her little mouth. Letting her chew on a wet tissue did the trick. Such are the challenges of photographing children….