Sunday, December 13, 2009

Williamsburg Wreaths

My stroll around Williamsburg to see the gorgeous holiday wreaths they put out on display every year didn't exactly go as smoothly as I would have liked. A rain forecast meant that we had to smoosh all of our weekend activities essentially into one day so we attempted to walk around to see the wreaths right before Logan's naptime, which was just a bad idea. So between temper tantrums and me holding a toddler who couldn't make up his mind on whether he wanted up or down, I did manage to sneak in a few pictures of the wreath displays before we threw in the towel and headed back to the car. If you'd like to see the full collection of pictures, visit my facebook page and feel free to join my fan list!







Saturday, December 5, 2009

Twinkling Lights | Virginia Beach Children's Photographer



This picture didn't go exactly how I had envisioned it. The layout of our living room was a little awkward to get the shot I wanted, but I thought I would share how to get the twinkling lights in a picture like this one. You know when you squint your eyes and look at a street lamp the lights turn into a starburst? Well, the same thing happens when you close up the aperture. Think of it like your camera is squinting. I took two pictures for this shot, both from a tripod. The first I set the aperture as high as it would go, to f/32 and got the twinkling lights effect. Then we brought Logan over to the tree and he started pointed out the lights and ornaments. The second shot was taken using bounced light off the flash, I angled it towards the top of the wall directly behind me and set the shutter speed back up to around 125 so it would freeze Logan's small movements. Then I merged the two photos in photoshop and came out with this final product. Try it on your tree and see what you come up with!