Christmas Link Up - Decor

Today begins the Very Merry Christmas Link Up! To join, post a picture relating to this weeks theme on your blog. This weeks theme is decor:

Week 1  - Christmas Decor

Every year I love geting out the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Pulling out the Christmas mugs and dishes, stockings, snow globes, nativities sets, and everything else. 

 Make sure to add the button to you post, then link up below. Then go ahead and blog hop a bit, and check out some of the other entries. The linky will be open till the end of the month and you can submit as many times as you'd like, just remember to follow the guidelines. 

At the end of the week, I'll feature some of my favorite entries from that week. So go ahead, and enter you best Christmas decor photo(s)!

<center><a href="http://sereinasphotography.blogspot.com/search/label/Very%20Merry%20Christmas%20Link%20Up" target="_blank"><img alt="Sereina Charise Photography: Very Merry Christmas Link Up" src="http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af49/sereinalovesvintage/Blog/VMCLcopy.jpg" /></a></center>

Giving Thanks

First of, I'd like to say Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there! Families all over America will be eating  delicious dinners with their family and friends. 

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.

-1 Chronicles 16:34

In honor of Thanksgiving, Rachel at Finding Joy is hosing a link-up, where you post something your thankful for, for each letter of the alphabet. Below is my ABC's of Thanks:

What are you thankful for?

Sleigh bells ring, are you listening...

...IN THE LANE, SNOW IS GLISTENING
A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT,
WE'RE HAPPY TONIGHT.
WALKING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND

I'm linking up to Hannah's Lovely Photo Wednesday and Carlotta's On Cloud Nine. I love the snow we got here, even if it was only about an inch. Every time I look outside, everything is all white and pretty. It's been a bit colder here than usual as well, as it got down to 11°F last night. Brrrr! But with the snow, it's worth it. :)

I Heart Faces - Paper

It's been a while since I've entered in an I Heart Faces challenge, but when I saw this weeks theme, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Last summer I got into origami a bit. I got several books from the library, and made   hearts, fish, sailboats, dogs, hats, bows, cute dresses, birds, and penguins. I also made some cute little butterflies, which are one of my personal favorites. So, I used an origami butterfly as a prop, and my sister as the model. Here's how it turned out:

The First Snow

Today, November 21st, we've got our first snow. It's a little bit above freezing temps, so it's not sticking much yet, and it's almost stopped. But tomorrow it's supposed to stay below freezing, and weather.com is saying we'll get some more snow. I hope their right!

A Very Merry Christmas Link Up

I've thought It would be fun to host a photography challenge, or link up of some sort. And since the Christmas season is just around the corner, I've decided to do a link up. So, without further to do, I'm hosting...

I want everyone to be inspired, creative, and to have fun with photography. Anyone can participate, and I'm hoping you all will! I want you to look at things differently than you usally do. Think about the shot before even pushing the shutter. Try different angles, and look at your subject from a different perspective. Or try a new technique. Edit a bit differently than you usually do. So basicly, just think outside the box and have lots of fun at the same time.


Heres how it'll work:
Every Sunday for the next month, I will be posting a linky. You'll write up your post with picture(s) that fit in the category for that week, include the "A Very Merry Christmas Link Up" button that I've included at the bottom of this post, and come back here to link up your post. Then blog hop around a bit and check out every one else's photos. You can enter just one or two of the weeks, or all of them, whichever you prefer.


All the linky's will be open trough the end of December. Feel free to link up as many photos/posts as you'd like for each category.


The Categories:
Week 1 (Nov. 28th) - Christmas Decor
Every year I love geting out the Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. Pulling out the Christmas mugs and dishes, stockings, snow globes, nativities sets, and everything else. 


Week 2 (Dec. 6th) - Christmas Lights
Anything from on a Christmas tree, on a house, or anywhere else you can find some decorative lights. They don't have to be in focus, either. Some cool bokeh shots would count as well. I'm planing on trying some custom bokeh shots myself.


Week 3 (Dec. 13th) - Christmas Foods & Tasty Treats
There are so many tasty things made this time of year: cookies, gingerbread houses, candy canes, and my personal favorite, eggnog. Mmmm, my mouth is watering! If you bake something yourself, you could share the recipe as well!
Anything that is edible will work for this weeks theme. And remember, composition is an important key to getting a great food shot.


Week 4 (Dec. 20th) - With a Face(s)
From a portrait of one friend, or a whole group of you doing something fun. Just make sure its still Christmas-y.

<center><a href="http://sereinasphotography.blogspot.com/search/label/Very%20Merry%20Christmas%20Link%20Up" target="_blank"><img alt="Sereina Charise Photography: Very Merry Christmas Link Up" src="http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af49/sereinalovesvintage/Blog/VMCLcopy.jpg" /></a></center>


So, what do you say? If your interested, I'd love it if you'd spread the word by posting about it on you blog, adding the button to you sidebar, etc. And if you have any questions, just let me know!

Yours Truly

For the assignment in my photography class this week, we had to take a picture that represents ourself. We could put ourselfs in the photo if we wanted, and that's what I did. It took a long time to finally get something that I liked. Over 100 pictures... None of them that I really liked. Self-portraits are harder than they seem.

I went around the house and found different items that represented "me": and old film camera since I love photography, a couple of Trader Joe's chocolate bars, two Disneyland tickets from our trip last year (I love Disneyland!), a photo of two of my favorite actors/dancers; Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, All of the Astaire and Rogers films on DVD, and some of my classic Nancy Drew books, since I have read almost all of them.

Perspective

I haven't been posting as much guys. Sorry about that... I just haven't been as busy taking pictures lately, so I don't have much to share. My future posts aren't likely to be as often as I was before, and not as constant. But don't worry, I still hope to post often enough.


I'd also like to thank everyone who follows my blog. It seems like the last month or so, my follower have been increasing faster than I can imagine. The comments you all leave are so kind, and I really appreciat them. :)


Now, on to some photos!


~~~~~~~


This year I'm taking a photography class at our homeschool co-op that we go to. It taught by Lorraine Marie, a professional photographer who's girls have graduated from our homeschool group. I'm very thankful to be learning from such a wonderful photographer, and I've learned so much already. I'm really grasping how to operate my camera manual, which is awesome. 

Our photography assignment for this week was perspective. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do for the assignment, but while talking outside with my friend at Monday school today, I thought this tree would be perfect. I really liked the colors and texture in the trunk, and thought it would look neat to get a view looking up. I shot in aperture priority, and opened my aperture enough so I would get the whole tree in focus.

Some Candy Corns

Saturday,October 30th, was National Candy Corn day.