One of our Christmas Books is called On That Special Night. I was starting to put away the Christmas things and saw this book and the tree. I had to try and make one of those longer exposure shots with the lights of the tree making flared out star patterns. I love how those images look. I had been meaning to get over to La Salette and make some more of those with the lights there, however with the incredibly warm weather and all that we have been doing during the holiday we haven’t gotten back over to take photos. I also haven’t felt super holiday spirited because there isn’t any snow, not that I want to be shoveling or anything like that. The lights just look so much better with snow on the ground.
To get the star like effect in the image I used an F22 aperture. This creates te effect when shooting for a longer period of time. I set my ISO to 100 and that made the time the lens was open set to 30 seconds which not only make the star effect but makes the image sharper. I took some shorter exposure shots but the tree wasn’t as sharp.
I do love these kids so very much. When I took this photo I was getting so stressed out and short with everyone. Trying to get the kids to stand nicely was not working. I ended up getting a bunch of images of the kids just being silly while I was more and more stressed about getting a great shot. I need to just relax.
We decorated the tree tonight. It has been a week of late nights and crazy things going on so why not get the tree decorated as well. I’m kind of glad that we did get it done because it is one more thing to get us into the holiday mood. Of course for me it is just to get stressed out like a madman. I try not to but it is a stressful time of year. This year Andrew wants a purple sailboat because that was something from a cartoon he enjoys. We did manage to find a red Playmobil sailboat and I got a can of purple spraypaint, we’ll see how that goes. It is the only thing that he’s been asking for.
For Eva she wants an Anna doll from the movie Frozen. I need to find that one. I wish I had realized it sooner and started looking, I would have already had it. I hope I find one.
With or without those toys, the kids will have plenty to open on Christmas morning. I just hope that Allison and I have a moment or two together before Christmas Eve to make sure that we are all set. At least we have the tree decorated and the kids enjoyed it.
