Happy Christmas!!

Happy Christmas!!


Often at this time of year we think of "Peace".  I came across this Ancient Chinese proverb that you might like to ponder ...


If there is to be peace in the world, 
There must be peace in the nations. 
If there is to be peace in the nations, 
There must be peace in the cities. 
If there is to be peace in the cities, 
There must be peace between neighbors. 
If there is to be peace between neighbors, 
There must be peace in the home. 
If there is to be peace in the home, 
There must be peace in the heart.
Lao Tzu


Question now is, from where does that peace in your heart come?  Perhaps by thinking of the true meaning of Christmas the answer may become a little clearer?


Happy Christmas ... stay safe, and all the best for 2012!!

Christmas nutcracker

Christmas nutcracker, originally uploaded by nzcjs.

A 50mm lens that opens quite wide and lots of lights on the Christmas tree was inspiration to play with Bokeh hoods again. One of the decorations, a soldier nutcracker, was selected as a foreground subject and the camera mounted on the tripod (which really needs updating! It's a cheap Bilora model but it cost me a fortune back in 1979 when I bought it in Amman, Jordan).

I needed the lights to be out of focus, so a shallow depth of field was selected (lens wide open) and then focussed on the soldier with him as close as possible to the lens (this made the depth of field even shallower). A couple of shots were then tried to see if the lights came out as stars, which they did, but the soldier was not illuminated very well.

As I'd just got the tree out of the loft I had my flashlight handy, so a gentle indirect light was placed on the soldier. Spot exposure on the soldier's face then gave the result you see above.

The bokeh hood is the one supplied by Canon in their Photo5 competition earlier this year. You may recall I had a go with hoods last month? Great fun, and well worth trying especially at this time of year when you may have time to spare and there's lots of lights about!

If you like the image, have any comments or suggestions please let me know.