Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas!

My family Christmas:

What would a photographer be without their camera during the holidays...well it wouldn't be me!

These are my favorites from Christmas day. I shot them with the SB800 flash (mostly) pointed straight at the ceiling. What a great light it creates in the room when you bounce the flash!!


I love this one of my Mom:



My Cousin (he loves to make this face for photos):



My Aunt:



My Aunt & my Cousin (her son):



My Mom and the "gravy" (yeah, we're Italian...we call tomato sauce "gravy"):



My hubby & his Dad:



One of my favorites of the day... My Grandpa who we got to smile/laugh.
The pic of him I took before this one...looked like quite the grumpy gramps.



My Brother-in-law and his Fiancé:



And of course...every year I make the family pose for a group shot (thank goodness for a tripod and a remote shutter release!):



And then when everyone cleared out I asked my husband to let me take a couple of us "since the tripod was already set up!" :D I love that my dog joined in the shot!!

Gotta Shoot Something, Right?

Well...it's dark when I leave work so no pictures on the way home for a while.

That leaves indoor shots as my only option for photography at the moment and I haven't decided to set any indoor macros or still lifes up yet.

Today my only photographic opportunity was when I noticed my Lab Lucas playing tug-o-war with his sleep-over pal for this week (my Mom's dog Emma).

I found it humorous that they were fighthing over a giant Shamu! The Shamu is the size of Emma! LOL!



*Of course, photographically, I wish the coat and Marshalls shopping bag were not in the photo but what can you do on a minutes notice. These were just for fun.

Here's my buddy...love those big brown eyes:



And of course I had to get my hubby greeting Lucas and our cute little houseguest when he got home from work:

Boredom Kicks in....

Got really bored this weekend so I did some self portraits to test the use of my new flash (Nikon SB800) and Manfrotto tripod.

Until I get some more friends and family to volunteer to be my models I guess I will have to settle for myself! LOL! I'm please with the results of the editing of skin, eyes, and use of filters on the shots.

To view the gallery with all of the self portaits I've done click HERE.

Example #1


Example #2