The nativity session

“our story began long ago, far away. when an angel appeared to mary one day.  she’d been chosen to have a special son, and he was going to save everyone!  but when the time came, mary was told to travel to bethlehem in the cold.  donkey carried mary on the long ride as joseph walked at their side.  when they arrived at the end of the day, they looked for somewhere warm to stay.  the ox shared his stable with them all, he was proud of his home, so warm but small.  there was no room at the inn that night, so the dry straw bed was a welcome sight.  the lamb was the first to see the bright light, he showed the shepherds the wondrous sight.  the angel told where Jesus would be born and said they must hurry before the morn.  their journey ended under the starry sky when they heard the angels singing on high.  in the stable below lying in the hay, was the baby Jesus to show the way!!!!  it was the first Christmas day!”
merry Christmas!   

(be sure to scroll all the way to the end for a very special video of this session!)

(written version of the story as told in the children’s book, ‘the nativity’.)
the children:  my three little ones… gracie (mary), brandon (the smaller shepherd) & clementine (baby Jesus).  and their sweet buddies:  jacob (joseph), tyler (the bigger shepherd) & ella (angel).
a big, huge thank you my amazing friend shauna reed for her genius and the incredibly beautiful wardrobe & prop creations!
we were also incredibly blessed to have the very talented videographer marianne bach create a video of the making of the nativity session.  it is just beautiful.  i ADORE it and i know you are going to love it too.  the lovely song in the video is “come ye angels” by grace laxson & tom monson.  (tip:  if the video does not show up at first, try reloading the page!)

the nativity. from Marianne Bach on Vimeo.   http://wildflowersphotos.com/blog/the-nativity-session/

Twinkle Light Bokeh Tutorial!

Its that time of year! December is finally here! Christmas cards are starting to roll in the mail! I have been getting tonnes of emails to do a post on the Twinkle lights with a pull back.
I think I had more emails abut this images than any other so I thought iT would be great to share with you how I did it!

So here you go!

the first image is a pull back of icicle twinkle lights hung with clamps off my backdrop stand against Seemless paper. In this case I used bone, but I also love the effect of white.


But whay you really want to know is how to achieve those great big orbs of light.
It all has to do with your Aperture ( well that and depth of field & distance from subject  too)  Here is the first example:
I photographed Mr Bear at F 3.2 – the balls of light are pretty small and you can still see some of the strings

the next was at F 1.4 – you can see how much bigger they got by opening up.

I wasnt getting the desired result  I wanted so I got closer to mr Bear and Tada!  ( I did shoot this at 1.4, and with my lens prefer to shoot around F2)
I also added the sweet heart who joined me in the studio.  Who I photographed at F2
Hope this helps you achieve beautiful bokeh!!!
Lisa   http://themilkyway.ca/2011/12/twinkle-light-bokeh-tutorial/