Merry Christmas to All!

Just a quick note wishing everyone a very merry Christmas!

Snowflake Lane

For the last few years we've been going to Snowflake Lane, a Christmas performace outside the mall every Christmas season with another family or two. We went this past Saturday night and the sidewalks were packed for the show! We went to our favorite burger place, Five Guys, first before heading to the mall.

We had some time to spend in the mall before the show, and I took many pictures of Christmas decorations.

We went to Starbucks and got a warm drinks. I usually get a cold drink, since I'm not a coffee fan, but this time I got a peppermint hot cocoa.



They have a penguin and a polar bear that wandered around and took pictures with people.

The snowflake lights lining the streets.

These drummers were new this year. They had water on top of the drums that bounced up when the beat it. They also make it snow.



The sidewalks and the area were we were at was packed like crazy. I was able to make my way up to the front to get some pictures, though.



Here's a video clip that my mom took of the drummers.


Gotta love Christmas tree bokeh!



While we were in the Disney store, I spotted this Animal plush, which I promptly showed my brother Daniel. Animal is his favorite Muppet and he can to a perfect Animal voice.



Cristina and I waited outside the Lego store while our siblings went in and looked around, since it was pretty crowded. I had her pose for me in front of that awesome bokeh.

Christmas Link-up: With a Face

It's time for the last week of a Very Merry Christmas Link-up. My, how time has been flying. You can still enter any of the categories through the 31st.
(If your new, or would like more info about the link up, you can visit, this post.)

Week 4 - 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. 



*Update* The linky doesn't seem to be working, so please leave your link in the comments.

Joining is easy. Just put together a post with a photo(s) that fit with this weeks theme, Christmas Lights, add my Christmas Link Up button, and come back here and add your post to the linky. Remember to post a link to the post, not your main blog address. Also, go ahead and check out all the other posts that are linked up. That's what makes this fun!

<center><a href="http://sereinasphotography.blogspot.com/search/label/VMCL%202011" target="_blank"><img alt="Very Merry Christmas Link-up" src="http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af49/sereinalovesvintage/Blog/VMCL2011Button.png"/></a></center>

The 35mm

For a while now I've been wanting to purchase a new lens, the 35mm f/1.8. Last week I decided to look it up online again, and Amazon had it $25 off! I was super excited that I was able to save a little bit on it and I purchased it that night. It arrived in Tuesday's mail, but was only able to play with it a little bit, since it was getting dark and I had to make dinner. I was only able to take a couple dozen photos, but I can already love it and I definitely see it getting a lot of use. It auto focuses really well and I can get really close up to subjects.


This is one of the first photos I took with it. Like I mentioned earlier, it was getting dark, so I had to bump up my ISO a bit, which added a lot of grain. I was able to fix it up a little in Photoshop, though.

Christmas-ness

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas,

Let your heart be light,
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight."


I don't know about you, but I've been having quite a fun time taking all sorts of Christmas-y photos. Especially ones with Christmas lights/bokeh. By the time the month is over, I'm going to have so many random Christmas related pictures.

I had some fun the other day taking picture of our tree while zooming in or out with the lens and a slower shutter speed. It's very entertaining.

Then there's all those decorations that I set up in front of the tree, so I can get some nice bokeh in the background. I love Christmas.

Winter Frost

It's that time of year when the rooftops and plants are covered in frost in the morning. 

I Heart Faces - Furry Faces

I don't have too many pictures of animals or pets, I dug in the archives and found this fun picture of a chipmunk we found with on a walk. On our way back from hiking to some waterfall, we stopped at a covered area with picnic benches. As we were getting ready to leave, we saw this chipmunk, so I started slowly inching over towards it, hoping I would get a good shot of it. Then my sister holds the zbar that I was eating to the chipmunk and he starts eating away and I snap away like crazy. 

Christmas Link-up: Foods & Tasty Treats

Week three is here! It's hard to believe it's only two weeks till Christmas is here. Today week three of a Very Merry Christmas Link-up begins, but remember, you can still join any of the themes trough the end of the month. Themes that have already started: Christmas Decor and Christmas Lights
(If your new, or would like more info about the link up, you can visit, this post.)

Week 3 - 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.

*Update* The linky doesn't seem to be working, so please leave your link in the comments.

Joining is easy. Just put together a post with a photo(s) that fit with this weeks theme, Christmas Lights, add my Christmas Link Up button, and come back here and add your post to the linky. Remember to post a link to the post, not your main blog address. Also, go ahead and check out all the other posts that are linked up. That's what makes this fun!

<center><a href="http://sereinasphotography.blogspot.com/search/label/VMCL%202011" target="_blank"><img alt="Very Merry Christmas Link-up" src="http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af49/sereinalovesvintage/Blog/VMCL2011Button.png"/></a></center>

Cranberries + White Chocolate + Oats

For Thanksgiving, we bought a big bag of cranberries from Costco for cranberry sauce. We had tons left over, so I searched the internet for baked goods with cranberries in them, and came up with these cookies. They're pretty much oatmeal cookies with cranberries and I also added white chocolate chips.

The recipe called for dried cranberries, but just used the fresh ones. They taste really good, but the cranberries were a little sour. Next time I'll add some sugar, or something.

I found the recipe on the Food Network website.

I shot these photos out in the cold on our back deck. I plugged in the lights inside and brought them out on the deck, a few feet from the cookies, to get some nice bokeh.

Christmas Link-up: Christmas Lights

(I was having some technical difficulties with the linky not working properly, so if you had linked up before, you'll need to re-do that below.)

It's time for week two of A Very Merry Christmas Link-up! Remember, all linkys will be open all month, so keep joining with your photos!

(If your new, or would like more info about the link up, you can visit, this post.)

Week 2  - 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.

Joining is easy. Just put together a post with a photo(s) that fit with this weeks theme, Christmas Lights, add my Christmas Link Up button, and come back here and add your post to the linky. Remember to post a link to the post, not your main blog address. Also, go ahead and check out all the other posts that are linked up. That's what makes this fun!

<center><a href="http://sereinasphotography.blogspot.com/search/label/VMCL%202011" target="_blank"><img alt="Very Merry Christmas Link-up" src="http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af49/sereinalovesvintage/Blog/VMCL2011Button.png"/></a></center>

Christmas Light Bokeh

Now that we got our Christmas decorations and lights out, I thought I would play around with taking portraits with Christmas lights bokeh.

I set two bar stools at the top of our stairs and draped a tablecloth then Christmas lights from them. I placed Daniel a few feet from the background and use my widest aperture (f/1.8) to get the nice bokeh. For the lighting, I opened up the front door, which lets lots of natural light on the staircase.

Christmas Link-up: Christmas Decor

Thanksgiving is over and today starts the first week of A Very Merry Christmas Link-up! 

Week 1 - Christmas Decor
I love pulling out all of our Christmas decorations each year and placing them all over the house, with Christmas music playing in the background. Lots of fun!


Every year at on Black Friday, JCPenny's gives away these fun little Mickey Mouse snow globes. I've been collecting them since 2002, but a couple of them have broken over the years, and last year we were too late to get them.

<center><a href="http://sereinasphotography.blogspot.com/search/label/VMCL%202011" target="_blank"><img alt="Very Merry Christmas Link-up" src="http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af49/sereinalovesvintage/Blog/VMCL2011Button.png"/></a></center>

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 and leave some comments. 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)!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is here. Soon we'll be putting the turkey in the oven and just hanging with my family. I'm looking forward to some yummy mashed potatoes. They're my favorite. :)

Sunday afternoon we had a big Thanksgiving dinner with my mom's side of the family, so this year we get to celebrate twice. We had a great time visiting with our family from out of state that we hadn't seen in two years. There was lots of laughter, card games, hide and seek, and awesome games of Ultimate Ninja. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Project 52: Week 45

{45/52}

Golden leaves in our front yard.

Announcing A Christmas Link-up

It's only a week till Thanksgiving, which means the Christmas season is just about here. Last year I hosted a link-up, which was tons of fun, and I shall be hosting it again this year!

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. At the end of each week, I'll choose a few of my favorites to share.

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. 27th) - 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. 4th) - 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.


Week 3 (Dec. 11th) - 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. 18th) - 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/VMCL%202011" target="_blank"><img alt="Very Merry Christmas Link-up" src="http://i992.photobucket.com/albums/af49/sereinalovesvintage/Blog/VMCL2011Button.png"/></a></center>

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!

I Heart Faces - Autumn Splendor

Fall = lots of colorful leaves on the ground all over the place.

Carving and Painting

For the last few years, instead of carving my pumpkin, I've painted it instead. I enjoy painting them more, and I like all the color it adds. Usually the rest of my siblings carve their's, but this year Alina and my mom painted their's as well.

Alina drew about a dozen or so faces on a piece of paper before deciding on this silly face.

Tiana chose to carve like usual, and picked out a horse and rider pattern that she found online.

My mom painted her's and used a picture of goofy that she traced onto the pumpkin before painting.

Daniel came up with a dead pumpkin face.

I'm a big Muppets fan, so I decided to paint Kermit the Frog this year. I traced him freehand on the pumpkin before painting him.

I Heart Faces - Black

The I Heart Faces theme is really simple this week: the photo just has to have black in it somewhere. I don't have to many photos that happen to fit that theme, but then I remembered this shot of my siblings that I took last month. I love the soft lighting that was in our backyard morning, so it was perfect for pictures.