Christmas 2018

Just a few pics of our decorations, special effects with the lights and a couple pics from Christmas Day.  I wasn't in the mood to go all out this year with decorations.  It's so much work to put up and take down!  Instead of hanging that ornament wreath I made a few years ago, I put the lit ball in the center on the floor.

Through a marble

Lisa made those awesome scrabble letter ornaments for us!  I just LOVE them!!!!!

We got that lit wooden arch decoration at Epcot, in 'Germany'.  I wanted one ever since I saw them in Gettysburg last summer but those were out of our price range.  This was much more reasonably priced.

Our 2018 ornament from the Sandwich Glass Museum.

Christmas Corner

We did deli, munchies, prime rib, mashed taters and green beans for Christmas Day.

My inlaws joined us this year.  It was a little crowded but very mellow/peaceful and great to have the kids as well.

Munchies!  My fave!

This was a project I saw making the rounds on Facebook so I decided to make one. 

I hope everyone enjoyed their day as much as we did!

Special Effects

At some point over the last couple of months, someone mentioned the Holga Filter Wheel for Canon camera special effects.  I ordered one and am currently experimenting with the two wheels.  Oh, just a note about the company.  I got the lens off Amazon because I didn't know I could purchase it directly from Holga.  I am having trouble figuring out how to focus, since the filter wheel attaches directly to the camera, not to the lens like most filters.  So I sent them an email to inquire how to focus.  They asked for my order number.  I told them I got it from Amazon.  They actually wrote back that they refuse to answer my question because I wasn't a customer.  Needless to say I wrote them back that I would be sure to trash their company and advise everyone to never buy from them. Talk about lack of customer service. 

I like some of the effects, but others are a little weird and I have to figure out how best to use them.  I shot some of the Christmas lights but as I said, I don't know how to focus or how close/far I should stand.

This was using the flash and it gave it a kind of dreamy look.

I picked up some funky, psychedelic glasses at my fave store in Plymouth.  When you put them on, rainbows shoot out from every light source.  Decided to try it in front of my camera lens.

WOW!  This totally exceeded my expectations!

I actually think I like the glasses better than the filter wheel!

Christmas Lights Bokeh

I pinned this picture on Pinterest awhile back and totally forgot to try it last year.  I decided to give it a whirl. Looks easy, right?  Just cut a design in the center of a circle, tape it on your lens and shoot.  

Me being, well, me, (i.e., impatient and never one to read directions first) I cut out a circle with a design in the center, taped it to my lens and shot a couple of pictures.  They didn't come out good at all and I deleted them.  Then I went back to this original picture, HERE, and decided to read the comments under this picture.  Most people that tried this effect were not successful based upon the photograph.  In the comments I discovered a link HERE on how to do this correctly.  

To obtain these results you need a tripod and to manually focus and control the shutter speed.  You also need to build a little 'hood' for the camera lens (with cardstock taped around the outside of the lens).  The first circle design I tried was a heart and I shot directly at the tree lights, but I didn't control the shutter.  They look more like triangles than hearts!!

Upon closer inspection, the heart that I cut was not very good at all, and looked like a triangle.  So I cut a new design, a 3 tiered tree and the results were much better.  Again, I just used the 'flash off' setting.  I did try a shot using 'bulb' but it really made no difference except making it brighter.  

I think with some practice, and a better template - perhaps a small hole punch design - this would be a cool way of taking Christmas light pictures.