It was the day after Christmas... (sort of..)

So Jacki posted a blog entry on the day after Christmas and I figured I would add a little to it as well...

Starting off Emma got a dress from her sister Emilie (in DK) and she really really liked it a lot. Couldn't get the thing off her and she was more than willing to pose... (I guess I should be somewhat concerned... hmm...)



A really great thing about Christmas is that Jacki baked as you may have read on her blog. One of her creations were these cookies (sorry they are gone by now).



ohh and for table decoration. One of Emmas favorites was the Christmas candle. It is kind of pretty.



Along with the meal we got boller. Just one of those easy things from DK. It's not much but when you get them nice and warm from the oven with a wee bit of butter they are good :-)



Ohh and as you may also have read. Emma got a new dog. This one with it's own little bag, comb, treats and pink bow in the hair. So this will be Francine (for now anyway). That naming started off when we went to Ohio for Thanksgiving and Aunt Judy got a new dog. Franco... so when Emma got home she had a little Franco and now a Francine (pink bow in the hair it must be a girl). (ohh here is Emma with the "real" Franco)



Ohh before I forget. For Christmas I got a new lens for the camera. I didn't really talk about it that much. Just about a couple of times a day for 2-3 months or so.
The old standard kit lens is ok but it does have issues with low light, clarity and sharpness compared to fast glass (ohh and yeah the sand from the beaches in DK didn't really help much... hmm).

Anyway the lens I got is this Sigma 17-70mm HSM Macro for my Nikon. If you want to read more about it you can find it here



Anyway. With this new lens I could capture a large part of the living room in low light (after bed time) hand held and not end up with one big blurry mess. The after unwrapping mess was quite enough ;-)



And speaking of capturing photos hand held in low light situations. Here is one from Emma sleeping in here tent. It's a hand held photo taken with nothing but the night light (yeah well and a slight boost to ISO 800).



Another shot I got was on Christmas day visiting with the peeps. This is from the deck as the sun was setting (yeah it was cold...)



As you can see Jacki is not the only one cooking. Here is my dear mother in-law cooking and getting some support in her hard work ;-)



One of the nice things about the new lens is experimenting with the wide angle part of the focal range. One could as an example get on the floor and capture the nephew chasing a ball like this.



Or literally get really close up and in peoples face (almost touching) to get shots like these (ps. don't tell Jacki about these photos...)



Another try with the low light and longer speed captures is this one of the train under the Christmas tree.



And finally (yeah I am going to loose a man-card on this one)...
Here is a cute reminder of what Christmas is all about



To all a Merry Christmas and happy New Year!!!!

Merry Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Let there be light....

This year we got a new addition to the collection of lights we hang for Christmas.
I know we could have more and really should (power company needs to feel it's Christmas too... right?).

Here are a small selection of photos from our front yard:



As you can see the penguin finally have company. Emma picked out Pooh as a fitting companion for the penguin. And well since home depot had it at 50% off... who am I to say no ;-)

Making of a Christmas photo

Creating the Christmas photo of the year is always an interesting adventure. It looks so easy when all you see is the finished result.

However getting the right idea and setup is just the small issues compared to getting a toddler to "play-along" with the idea and "vision"....

Just to illustrate it. Here are a series of photos from the making of the Christmas photo.

Illustration and showing what to do is always a good place to start. So mom is showing Emma what to do with all the weird stuff dad put up.

Just look in the box to see what's in there... like this



What's in there??? I don't see anything? what is it, what is it...



And a little game of peek-a-boo... well why not ;-)



Some times when you tell the most famous toddler to look what's in the box... well you know she was looking to see what she could find. Since she couldn't see much in it... yeah .... go digging ;-)

But daaaad you told me to find something in the box...



Ok Emma.... Just look in the box like this and sit still while doing it. Maybe even put on a little smile :-)



gggg I am done looking in that box.... come on.... It's EMPTY!!!!



ok ok so we are done.... Here is the resulting (picked) photo.



ohh btw. it isn't all just torture... there is a little bit of fun in there too...
like doing a little dress up



and using the timer to get both of us (yeah that's a cheese stick in her hand)




That's a wrap... eh... hmm no phun intended ;-)

after a little photoshop

Yeah... I am having a hard time as you can tell ;-)



Anyway... a little quick touch up and here are the results. I had one picked out but figured I would just try one more little thing ;-)

If you were to pick one?

Number 1	Number 2

ohh btw. click (left button) to view a larger version ;-)

Need some comments on this one

Soo what do you think of this one?

Need a few comments :-)