inspiration ave: festive

This one is easy - anything holiday or celebration or festive and I've been a snapping fool but I'll show restraint here and just share a couple that are my favorites without repeating ones I've used in earlier prompts.

A little texture action (from Shadowhouse) and some PSE filters enhance the texture of this poinsettia flower.

I love a good holiday party and we started the season with a fun night of friends, family and games!  Let's celebrate!!

Today I'm linking to Inspiration Avenue and also to Kat Eye View for "holiday lights".

exploring with the camera: holiday lights

The most recent prompt and tutorial from Kat is "holiday lights".  This one has so many possibilities it got my little head a spinnin'.  I have a few to share here but after seeing all the great bokeh and light pictures in the Sunday Scavenger Hunt and in Kat's flickr pool, I think I'll try refining my technique a little this week.

Kat has one of my favorite photo blogs, so when you have a few minutes, be sure to stop in and see what she's got going on....

One of my fave Santas with some texture added (used for PAF).

 Lights reflected - I've seen other versions of this shot and I'm not quite sure how to improve this though it definitely seems to be lacking ..... something.

A couple of shots of my deck lights - again....okay, but not what I hoped for.

Here I was doing a little "light writing" with my tree lights.  I love doing this and seeing what happens - the second one looks like some kind of computer code or something...  

If you want some tips on how to shoot holiday lights and create that bokeh (blurry background) effect, visit Kat's site for one of her excellent tutorials.