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And so this is Christmas

PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:01 pm
by johndec
Hi all.

As we all know tomorrow is Christmas Day and I'm sure there will be literally 1000's of photos taken by members. I thought it might be interesting if everybody posts their favourite Xmas shot. It could be anything, a kid opening a present, the obligatory family portrait, even the dog with his head stuck in the box that the Action Man toy came in :shock:

Pick your best/funniest and let us all have a look at it :D

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

John.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:06 pm
by Greg B
Good idea John

Happy xmas to all.

PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:06 pm
by MCWB
Nice idea John, should see some great pics I'd imagine! I'll be giving my new 24-120 VR a workout that's for sure. :) This will be the trial run, finding the sweetspot etc.

Merry Christmas to you and to all. :)

PostPosted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 9:24 pm
by Geoff
Great idea John,
I have a big day with both my family and Bel's too, of course the camera will be attending both events! How good is this? :)


Geoff.

PostPosted: Sun Dec 26, 2004 7:42 pm
by johndec
Well, seeing as I started this and seemed to be a good idea at the time (after several VB's), its only fair that I'm the first one to put my head on the chopping block!!

I've actually got two and it's the same old story. Either a great expression and lousy composition or good composition and at least one of your subjects looks like he just swallowed a fly...

I'd been awake for about 30 seconds when I took this, but for all it's faults I love the look on the youngest johndec:

Image


This one I'm happy with the framing, but you try and get a 13 year old boy to smile :)

Image

PostPosted: Sun Dec 26, 2004 8:11 pm
by bago100
Hi Johndec

You have a really nice family portrait there!

I couldn't help noticing the similarity between your dog and ours.

Here is ours for comparison

Image

Coco is eight years old - hence the grey hair and intelligent look.

What do you think? :D

Cheers

Graham

PostPosted: Sun Dec 26, 2004 8:50 pm
by johndec
Graham,
Actually it's my mother's dog and it only 14 months old and VERY excitable!! You will notice the leash in the photo and my sons arm is actually gripping his collar very,very tightly so that I could take the photo at a little less than 1/8000sec :D

PostPosted: Sun Dec 26, 2004 9:54 pm
by Greg B
Image

One from xmas day, my niece Abby, starting to look a little tired...

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 12:19 pm
by pl55
Here's mine.

Taking with the kit lens and SB800.



Image



Merry Xmas to all

Peter

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 3:23 pm
by Marvin
Wow Peter. What a great candid shot. I love the look on their faces. I wish I had something similar of my parents/grandparents but they all are/were a bit shy around the cameras.

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 5:24 pm
by pl55
Thank you Marvin.

I'm thrilled with the photo. Now ...... for my wife, that's another story .... she's getting sick of me with the camera !!! She prefers the soft focus look, and I'm yet to find that magical shot. Perhaps one day....



Cheers

Peter

Soft focus

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 6:07 pm
by the foto fanatic
Time to get out the vaseline!

I'm not being rude - that is actually how cinematographers used to create the soft focus look. Doris Day movies were famous for them - everybody in sharp focus except for our Doris, who perpetually looked like her skin had been airbrushed.

You could use a Skylight or UV filter with a smear of vaseline to achieve the desired result. Cleaning it off immediately would seem to be the obvious trick (I've not tried it myself). You used to be able to buy soft focus filters for lenses, but I haven't seen them advertised for some years.

In these digital days, the blur tool in PhotoShop can be used discreetly and sparingly to reduce lines on a subject's face.

Santa

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 6:08 pm
by beetleboy
Spotted this suspicious character in someone's garden in Lobethal (Adelaide Hills) on Xmas Eve..

Image

Liam =]

Re: Soft focus

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 6:21 pm
by johndec
cricketfan wrote:You used to be able to buy soft focus filters for lenses, but I haven't seen them advertised for some years.


Actually they're still available. A quick google brought up

http://www.madsens.com.au/hoyacart/hoya ... tening.htm

they've got a heap of them, although I'm not real fussed on their prices :? I'm sure we could do better :D

Christmas and new car

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 6:55 pm
by christiand
this is me and my new car:

Image

regards
CD

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 11:13 pm
by Werewolf
Nice shot Christian - very arty :D Santa certainly was good to you on Xmas Day wasn't he :wink:

Here's my 4 month old son, Jett, getting into the spirit of things!

Image

Finally got this Pixspot thang sorted, been struggling with image sizes all day!

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 11:34 pm
by dooda
Werewolf,

Your baby looks a little undernourished and unhealthy. Does he not like to feed? :o Beautiful baby! I love taking their pictures as the light rolls off of the curves on the cheeks so wonderfully.

I got some pictures of my new nephew. He's a healthy one as well, built like a fullback. Like carrying around a sack of wheat.

PostPosted: Mon Dec 27, 2004 11:51 pm
by Werewolf
Thanks dooda............he sure is a healthy lad! 11lb 11oz at birth and hasn't stop growing since! As of last week he weighed in at 9.8kg, not bad for a 4 month old :P Similar size/weight as a 1 year old! Quite a treasure though.

PostPosted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:03 am
by johndec
dooda wrote:I got some pictures of my new nephew. He's a healthy one as well, built like a fullback. Like carrying around a sack of wheat.


Dooda,

Seems we are going to have to educate you regarding football in Australia :D There are 2 main types of football here.

1. Rugby (League/Union). Played in the civilised states of New South Wales and Queensland. In this game a fullback is usually one of the smaller players in the team.

2. Aerial Ping-Pong (AKA Aussie Rules). Played in the barbarian territories that make up the rest of OZ :lol: Not sure how big a fullback is in that game as I usually fall asleep by quarter time :wink:

I'll be back in a minute, I'm just going to put my flame proof suit on and remove my tongue from my cheek!!

PostPosted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:19 am
by Werewolf
johndec wrote:Seems we are going to have to educate you regarding football in Australia :D There are 2 main types of football here.


Don't listen to him dooda :wink: There is only ONE type of true football played here..........the WORLD game, the original football, also known as Soccer in your part of the world. League/Union/AwFuL are the poorer cousins of THE BEAUTIFUL GAME! :D :wink: :lol:

Sorry Johndec, couldn't resist!

PostPosted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 12:34 am
by johndec
Thats allright Werewolf, I assumed he already knew how boring Soccer was :shock:

Hmmm, fullback?

PostPosted: Thu Dec 30, 2004 9:52 am
by the foto fanatic
In alphabetical order to avoid arguments :lol: :

AFL (Aussie Rules) - think Steve Silvagni - tall, athletic, can jump, tackle, catch, pass & kick

NFL (gridiron) - think Jim Brown (yes, a blast from the past; but is the current crop any better? NIMO) - not so tall, strong, athletic, can run & run

Rugby league - think Anthony Minichello - not so tall, athletic, can jump, catch, pass, tackle, kick & run

Rugby (union) - think Steve Rogers - not so tall, athletic, can jump, tackle, pass, catch, kick & run

Soccer - think ? (don't really have 'em, now - I think they are just called defenders) maybe Franz Beckenbauer - athletic, can run, (foot) pass, kick, tackle, jump, head :oops:

Seems like whatever the code, they are good to have around :)

PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2005 12:44 pm
by dooda
maybe I should have said linebacker. I forgot that every country has their own version of football.

My highschool rugby team goes to Australia every two or three years and plays rugby. I played way back in grade seven and eight. Then I got really tough and started playing basketball and mountainbiking.

Anyways, back to the start of the thread, here's a nice Christmas morning pic of my other slightly smaller nephew (not the linebacker).

http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... 0007&pos=1

PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2005 1:48 pm
by leigh999
The kids (not mine!) were having fun with some glow sticks...

http://www.deviantart.com/view/13683178/

PostPosted: Sat Jan 01, 2005 2:20 pm
by xerubus

PostPosted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 12:56 pm
by dooda
Leigh,

Cool pic with the glow stick. Next time try and take the picture with his face nice and neat and in the middle of the circle (using the glow as a frame).

PostPosted: Mon Jan 03, 2005 1:00 pm
by leigh999
Yep... Having opened the pics up at home I saw that I could have tried to centre their faces more - ah the benefits of hindsight!

To be honest at the time I didn't know if any were going to come out at all - well I could always get some more glow sticks...

PostPosted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 4:01 pm
by dooda
just bring home a couple of packages of sparklers home and invite the neighbourhood kids over. Go out and shoot your heart out. That would be a blast! I love low light stuff like that.