Birthday Boy Bokeh

My favorite Christmas present EVER

arrived four days late...

my son Mark!

That was TWENTY years ago...

and, he's still my favorite present.

But my favorite for Christmas, 2011

was a 50mm 1.4 camera lens.

As you can see in these pictures of

my birthday boy in his birthday antlers...

the lens creates GORGEOUS bokeh.

(blur in the background.)

I am loving the bokeh

Christmas tree,

and the snuggling siblings.

Daughter Lindsay works at

Hallmark and got her bro-bro

a card.

They LOVE to laugh together!

I LOVE to see bokeh!

Oh, AND my precious son.

I was at it again...baking a cake.

He wanted orange cream.

I share the tasty recipe on my

cooking blog:

Busy Mom Recipes

As I have shared in numerous other posts...

I cannot make pretty cakes.

I SWEAR I tried here:

The important thing is

it tasted YUMMY...

And, Sonny had a festive birthday.

Happy New Year!!!

Christmas Snow Globe

If you've been following my blog

you know I am now a portrait photographer.

My photography passion began with this blog!

I realized I needed photos to tell

the stories, and thus began my massive

efforts to learn how to work my camera.

I've been  busy this month

 taking Christmas portraits like

the one above taken YESTERDAY.

It's Christmas Eve     

and I'm playing around in Photoshop Elements.

I wanted to try putting people

into snow globes and found

an AWESOME website called:

Extreme Cards.

I'm sharing the link because this

wonderful blog has all kinds of great

projects for you to try with your

photos.

Since it's Christmas,

I  played with the SNOW globe.

I didn't put a lot of time into it, but

wanted to get this posted for

Christmas Eve.

You can do an even neater job

than me.

Enjoy!

And, Merry Christmas!!

Pin It

More Free Bokeh

Just as I promised,

I'm back with more free bokeh backgrounds

in time to still play with Christmas photos. 

I am fortunate to live near

Frankenmuth, Michigan, home to

Bronner's Christmas Wonderland

the world's largest year-round Christmas store.

You can read more about Bronner's

in my

BLOG POST

from last year.

It brims with 50-thousand trims and gifts

and floor to ceiling LIGHTS and bulbs

that make wonderful

BOKEH!!

Bronner's electric bill is $1,250 a DAY!

I visited earlier this week and

was out of my mind with excitement shooting

bokeh photos.  I filled my photo card.

I'm happy to share my bokeh with you for free

because I love that others have shared with me.

Below, I've included the backgrounds

you see in all these photos .

Play with opacity and brightness

to create softer colors like

these pretty pinks.

Bronner's had lights in every color,

so I tried to capture a wide variety

to use as backgrounds all year.

Enjoy the bokeh!

I share more on how to add the backgrounds

HERE

and

HERE

(Click on the bokeh to copy larger size.)

Check out more bokeh ideas at:

Jaymi's Blog

and

My 3 Boybarians

I hope your holiday is

Merry and Bright!

Pin It

Winter Begins

The snow started falling HEAVY on Tuesday

evening. It wasn't even in the forecast.

I was SOOOO excited because, as you

know from last winter's posts...

I LOVE SNOW!!!

This was the tranquil scene out

my front door about 9 pm.

See those three BIG pine trees to the

right in my neighbor's front yard?

Keep an eye on those trees...

This is what I awoke to

Wednesday morning!

Yippeeeeeee!!

I grabbed my camera and

hopped in the car.

I think winter is the prettiest time

of year to shoot photos.

Thinking of

Tricia's Barn Charm...

I headed over to my friend's house.

He has this wonderful modern barn built

just a few years ago:

I love all the Barn Charmers...

so, I grabbed a few more barn shots

since we have so many barns near us.

Now...back to those three big pine trees.

I always LOVE those trees laden with snow in the

winter.

I can look out my window and enjoy them.

Imagine my dismay at the scene below...

Now there are only TWO trees!!!

I looked out my window mid-day and saw the whopper

tree being hauled away on a big flatbed trailer.

WHAT?????

I was SAD!!!

The new owners had told my husband the

trees block their house.

Then we saw it again in this photo

that appeared in our local newspaper.

My neighbor's awesome tree is the

centerpiece of our town's Christmas

Center display for 2011.

This warmed my heart...it gets

to stand tall and bring a lot of

Christmas Joy!

Meanwhile...

Who's been visiting my house?

Pin It