And so this is Christmas

[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

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

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

John.

[Greg B]

Good idea John

Happy xmas to all.

[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.

[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.

[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:




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

[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



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

What do you think?

Cheers

Graham

[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

[Greg B]

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

[pl55]

Here's mine.

Taking with the kit lens and SB800.







Merry Xmas to all

Peter

[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.

[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

[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.

[beetleboy]

Spotted this suspicious character in someone's garden in Lobethal (Adelaide Hills) on Xmas Eve..



Liam =]

[johndec]

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

[christiand]

this is me and my new car:



regards
CD

[Werewolf]

Nice shot Christian - very arty Santa certainly was good to you on Xmas Day wasn't he

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



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

[dooda]

Werewolf,

Your baby looks a little undernourished and unhealthy. Does he not like to feed? 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.

[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 Similar size/weight as a 1 year old! Quite a treasure though.

[johndec]

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 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 Not sure how big a fullback is in that game as I usually fall asleep by quarter time

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!!

[Werewolf]

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

Don't listen to him dooda 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!

Sorry Johndec, couldn't resist!

[johndec]

Thats allright Werewolf, I assumed he already knew how boring Soccer was

[the foto fanatic]

In alphabetical order to avoid arguments :

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

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

[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

[leigh999]

The kids (not mine!) were having fun with some glow sticks...

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

[xerubus]

just two 'stock' photos of our christmas....

http://www.nikonaustralia.com/gallery/S ... erry_sauce
http://www.nikonaustralia.com/gallery/Stock/decoration

cheers

[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).

[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...

[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.