My Sweet Things

Hello Friends! Happy Saturday to you! This morning I have spent some time uploading all the photos taken from my camera phone over the last month. 398 photos to be exact. I am participating in a project 365 and since I always have my phone with me, I am using it for this project. iPhone Project 365 is the app I downloaded from the Apple App Store. It’s so easy to use and keeps my photos well organized using a monthly calendar. Check the app here for more info.

January was delightful as I started the New Year with my husband hiking through Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest. I participated in two Trail Dame hikes, and received my membership goodies from the Trail Dames. There were a few dinners out with family and I went to see the show Avenue Q. Of course there was lots of cat loving time! I was thrilled to see so many repins on Pinterest for the wedding thank you sign I made for my son. You can find my Pinterest I’m Crafty board here. I have enjoyed my first full month of yoga and was so happy to have my hair done. A day at the salon is always a good day! I finished the Hunger Game series and can’t wait to see it at the theater!
Thank you January for a sweet month!

~It’s all good. Donna

It’s hard to believe we are once again back in the Holiday Season! One week away from family gatherings, and gift exchanges. Sparkly bubbly, sparkly lights, and wide, happy smiles. ‘Tis the Season! I have spent some time with my camera, practicing bokeh. That lovely, blurring, un-focused background of a photograph due to lens blur. Would you like to get lovely, blurry, Christmas light bokeh? I am no pro, but here are some tips that seem to be working for me. I use my 50mm, 1.4 lens and use a wide open aperture of  f/1.4 or f/1.8.  I found that the farther my subject is away from the lights, the larger orbs appear.

Manual focus 1.4, flash not used. I don’t normally shoot on manual focus, mostly because my eyesight is not that great, but here I simply turned the focus ring until the lights were blurry and snapped this shot.

50mm, 1.4

I used auto focus on this shot, focusing on Justin’s hand. The tree was a few feet behind him. Focusing on the subject with the light source a few feet behind the subject will give you this effect.  50 mm, 1.4, no flash

50mm, 1.4, manual focus ~ Simple white lights.

50mm 1.4 – auto focusing on the snowflake

Holiday Cheer Beer!

Ginobili was sitting on a table by the window. The Christmas lights were reflected in the window pane. She is such a pretty girl! I tell her that all the time. Yes, I talk to my cats and tell them how lovely they are. Crazy cat lady? Maybe. Anyhoo, I love learning new techniques and with all the sparkly Holiday lights, this is the perfect time to keep working on that bokeh!

It’s all good ~ Donna