Holiday Bokeh

Bokeh:The blur, or the æsthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light. The term comes from the Japanese word boke (暈け or ボケ), which means "blur" or "haze", or boke-aji (ボケ味), the "blur quality". 


I have discovered a new love. Holiday Bokeh. I was photographing some recent and favorite ornaments for you all, when I was reaffirmed how much I love shooting wide open. I am fascinated by the way the christmas light sparkle in real life, and I adore the way they blur in photographs. Happy discovery. Happy day. Happy Holidays. 

This is my newest ornament. It's from our first honeymoon. Bluejay and I decided to call our anniversaries honeymoons instead of anniversaries. Because I'm a holiday elf, I get new ornaments from every big event or trip. I'm spoiled :) This is from our camping honeymoon in Duluth. It rained all weekend. Our tent wasn't waterproof. We slept in the car. But we stuck it out. Now it's a memory!

These vintage style ornaments are my all time favorite!

This one is Bluejay's least favorite. He hung it on the back of the tree. I moved it to the front. I like coffee... a lot. So it needed to be up front. And I wanted to remind my mom that in 13 days we get to sit at Starbucks across the table from each other and chat in person. I can't wait!

Giveaway Winner!

We have a winner! Kathryn Salonka said: It turned out great! Love the birds.

Kathryn is also a WONDERFUL jewelry maker. I have been eyeing some of her work for some time now. I love her necklace called "Keys and wood". I'm a sucker for vintage skeleton keys. Check out her website here.

Congrats Kathryn! Email me (hopefeathers {at} me {dot} com) with your address to claim your prize :)

This was a really fun experiment. I loved seeing a bit more of who reads my blog. Maybe I'll have to do giveaways more often! Don't be a stranger now.... come back every now and then to say hi! I love comments.

Since photoless "naked" posts from a photographers blog is just silly, here are some silly pics of me and Bluejay as we tried to take some tripod christmas photos. We're going to try again... haha. And hope for snow. Who takes christmas photos in Mn with no snow? I'm dreaming of a White Christmas!

Christmas Ornament Giveaway

Well... it's officially December! If you remember this post, you know that I have been counting the days until Dec. 1. Why? Well, for the last few months, I have been hang sewing an advent calendar which begins on Dec. 1. It was touch and go there for a while. Lots of real late nights and double movie marathons with Bluejay while I sewed, but it's done! I actually finished it two nights ago so last night Bluejay and I were able to do this:

in front of this:

We set up our sleeping bags in front of the tree and huggled (hug + snuggle = huggle... we're dorks). Last night I discovered that Christmas tree's are like bonfires in that I could stare into their glowing lights for hours!

But back to the giveaway and the advent calendar. The idea for an advent calendar had be nesting my head for a while, but when Bluejay's mom gave me a bunch of her old holiday fabric, that little egg hatched and my craftiness exploded! I had no idea it would be such a long process. Here are some pics:

        

(it hasn't been hung yet... hence the funky shaddows)

Inside each pocket there is a little birdie. Each birdies is different and will be pined to the tree on the corresponding date. There's going to be a million (ok...24) birdies in that tree come Christmas! So what's the giveaway? The advent calendar? Um.... no. Too many blood sweat and tears put into this baby. But, I happen to have a little birdie who needs a home on someone's tree. I will choose a random commenter to receive this yellow birdie in the picture.

If you leave a comment on THIS POST by noon on December 3, 2009 to be entered into the giveaway. Please check back to see if you have won! Once the winner has emailed me their address, I will pop that little birdie in the mail and you can put him on your tree in a couple days! Good luck everyone!