In our house, the holiday season officially begins on December 4, with Beloved’s birthday.
Once we have that out of the way, we can officially get on with the Christmas mania! After the mouse-poop fiasco and a good sanitizing, we decided that we love our Christmas tree too much to sacrifice it.
The boys each lost a tooth on Friday, Simon from the bottom and Tristan from the top. So now, they can together sing, “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth!” (Somehow, I forgot to upload the picture of Simon. Oops!)
One of the restrictions of taking pictures through my Duaflex is that you have a really wide angle of view with a very long depth of field. (Everything is in focus, from close to the camera to the far distance.) I’d seen some talk in the forums on Flickr of using a close-up filter to get a larger image of the viewfinder, which worked well, but had a really interesting effect on depth of field. See how the closest bits of cedar are sharp and those further away are blurred? The close-up filter does that, and for reasons I don’t understand, it also blurs the edges of the viewfinder.
(You’ve seen this Christmas mouse already, but you can see the same effect as above.)
In addition to being Beloved’s birthday, this week we also celebrated Lucas’s 22 month birthday. He gets cuter by the day, don’t you think?
On Wednesday, I was puttering around the house looking for something to turn into a still life. I started with my grandmother’s antique soup bowl, and then tried adding some clementines. That didn’t work so I started tried some nuts, but it wasn’t very interesting. Then I added my macro filter and got in real close, and this is what I ended up with. (That’s a fairly accurate summary of how I approach most images you see here: something catches my eye as potentially photographable, I try a few different angles and approaches, add some things and subtract some others, refine my approach and end up with a final image — about 20 shots after I started!)
Last but definitely not least — poor ol’ Katie, the best doggy in the world. I called this one “All I want for Christmas is some peace and quiet!”
Only 40 more days to go!!
I’m surprised you have a mouse hanging on your tree given all the mouse-capades happening in your life.
I see your boys like striped turtlenecks as much as you do!
I kind of want to say, “nice nuts!” but I’m much too classy for that. Also, I know that I’ve said it before, but I’m really going to be sad when you complete this project.
Every so often I see a picture that makes me want to tell you about it. Weird, I know. I posted a couple on my site today that I’d love to hear your opinion of. Please drop by when you get a chance.
Dani, I am pleading strep throat to explain why I am AWOL from your blog lately and yet still have the chutzpah to ask for concrete advice. It’s actually a combo of strep throat and going-on-the-White-House-tour!!! though so you should take that into consideration.
So.
Let’s say, theoretically, that I promised myself a Nikon DSLR for finishing two chapters, then didn’t finish the two chapters, but am having Christmas in Minnesota with my two siblings on our every-other-year schedule. Let’s stipulate that I have two nieces, ages 3.5 and 18 months, and a nephew, 21.5 months, and that my sister is pregnant with her third. Also my father was in the hospital for all of November, and while it’s spine-related and not life-threatening, it’s anxiety-inducing. So given that, let’s theorize that I decided to screw the chapters reward structure and buy the Nikon, with the kit lens.
Would I theoretically, by following your advice for getting indoor shots without a flash, be able to take decent photos with the kit lens? Because I really can’t afford the Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX — I can’t afford the theoretical new camera — but I also don’t want to look back at the end of our trip and think, DAMN IT, I could have had actual photos and instead I have crap. I mean, there’s a really good chance that my sister may not spend Christmas with us in two years. My great-grandfather just turned 84. Carpe diem and all that.
Keep in mind that I’ve had a perfectly fine Canon IS something-or-other forever, so anything I take with this new camera is going to blow my socks off. What would YOU do?
Thanks.
Dear Jody,
First of all, if you ever preface a request like that again, I will ban you! 😉 You think you haven’t earned a lot of leeway for being one of my first bloggy and online friends? Seriously! And what was that about the White House tour?!?
Ahem, anyway, back to the question at hand: decent pictures of fast-moving subjects indoors without a flash in Minnesota in the wintertime? You’re not going to like this answer much. I mean, if you can throw open the curtains and the glare from the snow is bouncing around the room, you’ll be fine, but since you’re looking at minimal daylight hours, I think you’ll need something more than just the kit lens.
I suffer from an utter lack of impulse control when it comes to camera equipment, so I am not exactly the best person to ask about this. However, I see three options for you. Not getting the Nikon is not even on the table. That must happen, you so deserve it.
First option, you can go with the kit lens, and splurge an extra $150 for the nifty fifty f1.8. There are two — one is affordable and will not autofocus on the base-level Nikons. That’s what I have. The fancy-ass one is twice the price, but will autofocus. I think the 35mm is similar, but I am fond of the 50 mm.
Second option, forgo the nifty fifty, and spend an extra $250 and get an SB-600 flash. You’ll never regret it. Then next year, get the nifty fifty, too, because you deserve it.
Third option, go to a local camera store and ask them for a clear-ish to white plastic film canister, the kind that you get 35mm film in. Make one of these funky DIY flash diffusers and slap it on the pop-up lens. Take flash pictures that are not flat with glaring shadows. Then next year, go out and buy the nifty fifty, and get the SB-600 the year after that.
Will you post some of your pix? I’d love to see them!
Your friend in throat sickness,
Dani
Great pics Dani!
I had to laugh when I saw the one with the boys decorating the Christmas tree – all three of them in their STRIPED TURTLENECKS!!!! Not hard to tell who is their fashion advisor!! Too cute!
The one of Katie is priceless too… !
Great job on making it so far! I am only on Day 20 http://prophecyblur.com and am already daunted about the challenge ahead. I have chucked up my own Christmas pics for my last post, and am sure there will be a few more to come over the next few weeks!