Getting Creative For Christmas

Hope that you all had a fantastic Christmas. I had an excellent one and am lucky enough to have the whole 2 weeks off work so am enjoying the relaxation.

I always think that it's a nice touch to give something personal and creative for Christmas (or birthdays) and although I have gifted a number of framed pictures, photo mosaics, etc over the years sometimes you can't beat a hand drawn picture.

As it was my good friends baby's first Christmas (featured in a previous post), I decided to create a drawing from one of the photos that I took from when she was 2 weeks old.

A few months back, I dug out and dusted off a drawing pad then set to work using fine liners. A long long time ago, back when I was at school, I created a series of portraits using just dots on paper. This is a very time consuming method but I like the way that you can get the required shading just by increasing the consistency of the dots and you can't really go wrong - Well, that's not strictly true but it is easier to cover any mistakes!

Anyway, 2 pens and thousands of dots later, here is the resulting picture....



As usual, click on the image to enlarge and I think this looks better if you view from slightly further away from the screen ;-)

Christmas 2011

Right folks, it's that time of year again when I post the obligatory photo of the Christmas tree and wonder where the past 12 months have gone!

No where near as large and bushy as last years effort but it was a lot more manageable to put up and cost almost half the price!

Like last year I got bored of the standard shot and started experimenting with movement as you can see in the second shot.





I found some old lights (which only work when they want to), an inexpensive fish bowl vase and some cheap ball balls for this new edition to the Xmas decorations!



Merry Christmas...

Baby's First Christmas

My good friend's baby will be having their first Christmas this year and the grandparents requested a picture of her in festive attire so they could send out some personalised Xmas cards to friends and family.

I volunteered my services and we had some fun last Sunday afternoon rearranging their lounge and setting up some shots then trying to keep the baby amused and looking in (roughly) the right direction!

Here are a few of favourites from the day.







As usual, click on the images to enlarge.

Oh Christmas Tree Oh Christmas Tree!

So here we are again...Christmas time. Thought I'd better take the mandatory shot of the Christmas tree as I do every year! It's a big one this year - I swear it looked smaller when I bought it!

Just for a change, I took another shot with the camera still on the tripod and zoomed out during the exposure - It created a nice little effect.





As usual, click the images to enlarge

Christmas Lights?

Here is a different way of capturing the local Christmas lights! These were taken using long exposure whilst driving past.

Salisbury Market Square


Salisbury Street


Wilton Christmas Tree


As usual, click the images to enlarge

Another Year Gone

So that's it then...the festive period is over. It's official now in my house as the tree and decorations came down yesterday and it's back to work tomorrow!!

Hope that you all had a good New Year and now we can look forward to what 2010 has to offer.

Here is my naked tree shortly before being dragged outside then chopped, drawn and quartered!

Fairy Light Fun

Before storing the Christmas lights and decorations away in the loft for another year I decided to have some fun with my camera and a string of fairy lights lights.

Here are some of the results...

Festive Bokeh

Happy New Year to everyone :-) I hope that you all enjoy a great New Years Eve and best wishes for 2009.

Seasons Greetings

I hope that you enjoyed a very good and relaxing Christmas. I had a good one although slightly over shadowed by a cold which materialised on Christmas afternoon and is still with me but going to try and subdued it a little with some alcohol tonight as I'm off for drinks round a friends place!

I have got another week off before heading back to work so will just have to make up for lost time :)

Here are a few festive shots...

Countdown to Christmas

With the supermarket shelves stocked with festive goodies, it's difficult to miss that Christmas is just around the corner.

I'm finding it hard to believe that's it's nearly a year since last Christmas and how quickly this year has flown by.

Looking forward to getting another real tree this year...you just can't beat the smell of a freshly cut Christmas tree to put you in a festive mood.