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Posted on November 26, 2011

Christmas lights twinkle on a snow glistened night,
While Santa checks his list beneath the bright lights.

A few helpful hints for taking Christmas light pictures like this one:

1.  Turn your flash off.

2. Take your camera off automatic. Your camera will be very confused with all the lights. Instead put your camera in manual mode.

3.  Put your camera’s white balance on tungsten so that you’ll avoid really orange pictures.

4.  Use a tripod or sit your camera on something sturdy so that you can use a slow shutter speed. For this shot I use 1/3 or 0.3 of a second. I also used my timer to reduce the shake of me pressing the button.

5. Open up your aperture (low number like F1.8 or whatever your lens will do) For this shot I used F3.2 so that I could get both eyes in focus.

**If I remember correctly, on this shot I changed the focus to manual because my camera was having a hard time focusing on Santa’s face.**

Have fun!

Posted on November 22, 2011

 What a fun family! I absolutely love their boys. C Family, thank you so much for choosing me to take your pictures. You are beautiful!

Posted on November 20, 2011

I recently decided to tackle a refinishing project. This buffet was my grandmother’s. It’s been sitting in her storage shed since before I can remember. After she passed away, my dad gave it to me. He knows what a softy I am for old finds. I couldn’t just let it sit there and continue to deteriorate. The termites and water had done enough damage on the thing as it was. I thought it was going to be a BIG project but it ended up being pretty easy.

The wood was good and solid so I decided to just sand it down a little and leave the damage. Why you say? As I was taking out the drawers and taking off the doors, I found fingerprints from past paint jobs,  letters in the wood where someone had practiced their school handwriting and one of my uncles had carved his name in a drawer. I decided to leave all those memories I’d found by just sanding a little and staining the wood. I left everything intact….even the termite damage. I’m so glad I did. I love it SO much. I have a piece of my grandmother and grandfather and a piece of my childhood memories.

Uncleaned and ready for a refinish.

My uncle Donald’s carving and a lot of paint fingerprints.

Sanded just a little and ready for stain.

Ebony stain applied.

After two coats of Deft for protection and shine plus new knobs and hinges, it was all ready to go in the house.

I placed it at the base of my basement stairs and am using it as a gift wrap station/center.

Posted on November 9, 2011

Eastern Oklahoma has some beautiful fall foliage this time of year. I always look forward to taking pictures in this part of the country.

Love you Z & T!

Posted on November 6, 2011

Love those blue eyes!