bokeh how-to

It's New Year's Eve Day, and I'm finally posting a Christmas-y photo. Better late than never, I say. Besides getting everyone's fun photos in the mail, another reason I love Christmas is for capturing the lights. This year I didn't get out much, but I did enjoy my own little tree at home.

If you tree is still up, you can try this too. Bokeh is the background blur in an image. It's a made from tiny bits of light that are out-of-focus. In my Christmas tree photo, the bokeh became the subject of my photo. You'll want to shoot at a wide aperture. In the photo below, I used my Tamron 28-75mm at f/2.8, the widest or most open aperture available. Switch to manual focus so that you're actually turning the focusing right yourself, and play around until you get an effect that you like.

It takes just a little practice, but it's a fun effect. Have fun! And, Happy New Year's Eve!

christmas photo album

Wow, the month just flew by! I've missed blogging, but it was also nice to take a little break, even though it was unintentional. I've been a rather sporadic blogger this past year. Maybe 2011 will be different?

One of my favorite things about Christmas is receiving our friends' family photos. Really. I love photos (no surprise), and it's always nice to get a little glimpse of how kids have grown, even if I can't keep up with everyone throughout the year.

I display our photos here on the wall rather informally.


Several years ago, I decided that it was a real shame to toss everyone's photos after Christmas, so I purchased a cute little photo album. Nothing crafty about it. Just a regular album that you can slide 4x6 photos into and out of.



When it's time to put away Christmas decorations, I take down my photos, and put them into our album. If they're too big (like those long envelope-length cards), I just cut off what doesn't fit, and slide them in. Our album sits on our end table throughout the year so that my girls can look though it and be reminded of who our friends are. Some are long-time friends, some are new friends, but I love how it helps them to know that we are loved and part of a bigger community of people who live all across the country.

bartelt family

These three boys are just the cutest. They really are. So well behaved and photogenic too. We were all a bit under the weather--coughing and sneezing together during this shoot, but I still think we managed to get some nice images. Enjoy!

photo booth

How many Christmas parties have you been to this year? Our office party this year was particularly fun because they brought in a Photobooth. You know, the kind you go in, hide behind the curtain, and come out with prints? Real, live, prints? It was so fun. The girls were in school, so it was just David and I with little Z. I loved what we captured. So fun!

the cortez family

I really enjoy getting glimpses into families lives as I photograph them. It's such a treat for me. I learned that Mike used to be a firefighter in Manhattan during the time of 9/11. He has an incredible story. I also loved photographing their little guy. He is such a cutie! Don't you agree?

hand family

I'm so lucky to get to take photos for so many of our good family friends. These guys are great! And sooo picture perfect. I joked with them that they couldn't take a bad picture, and it's really true. Shannon told me when their oldest was a baby, she would get her pictures taken for fun because was so entertained by the experience. I can totally see that--she's such a good performer! It must run in the family. They couldn't have made my job any easier. Thanks for a fun, easy session, guys!