Photo Tips

Mamabloo Does a Photo Shoot of the Christmas Tree! Fun Photo Tips for Everyone!

Me Ra Koh

My dear friend, Kari, has started her own blog.  And I am LOVING it!  It’s called Mamabloo.  Some of you may recognize Kari from her funny comments on my blog posts, and then there was that incident where Oprah rebuilt her HOUSE!  (no, I’m not joking.)

Kari has a down to earth style of writing that nine out of ten times makes me smile.  When I post Photo Tips or Exercises, Kari will bust out her camera and give it her best go.  She’s not a professional photographer.  She is a full, and I mean FULL TIME mama, with FIVE kids in tow.  She doesn’t know all the camera jargon, but that doesn’t stop her from capturing her family stories.  What is so great is that she’ll often email me the stories behind what happened and her fun results.  Some of her stories have me rolling…and that got me thinking…why don’t I ask Kari if I can share some of her stories with you!  So for experiment sake, we’ve got our first Mamabloo Photo Tale.

_________

I love Christmas trees.  Every year I load the family up in the mini van – all 7 of us – the Saturday after Thanksgiving and head out to someplace to get a tree. What happens next is predictable and consistent from year to year. My husband, Dave, and I get in a fight.

We are in complete and utter disagreement over everything regarding the tree. What size it should be, how much we should spend, and, of course, where it should go in the house. The truth of the matter is, I always win. And Dave always sulks. This year, he took a different approach and just said “I’ll do whatever you want” over and over – sorta like a mantra — and the whole day was much better. Ahhhh…Merry Christmas. So it is not a coincidence that this year I think we have the best tree ever. Ever. So, it is finally time to take a picture of it.

Me Ra tells us that taking a good Christmas Tree photo requires 8 simple steps. Gee, only 8. Off I go to try the first step.

Step One says to set the shutter speed at a VERY slow speed. Check: 1/5

And to set the camera to TV mode (I didn’t even know it had a TV mode, but, hey, I watch a lot of TV, so it should be fine) Check.

And put the ISO up high. Check: 1600

Here is my first crappy picture.

I GUESS I AM GOING TO HAVE TO READ ALL THE STEPS!

The next steps actually involved the timer on my camera!  I actually had to Google it to find out where the stinkin’ timer was on this thing.  I spent the next few nights in short bursts of time shooting my favorite parts of the tree using Me Ra’s advice.

So……I wasn’t able to completely adhere to all the steps – anything called “RAW” scares the ba-jeebers outta me.  The imagery that word, RAW, conjures up is just wrong.  And I am glad I have had some ballet and yoga in my past because I needed to contort myself to see through the viewfinder. But, I was able to fiddle around with her 8 steps and come up with something to forever document the best tree ever. Even Dave agrees.

To try Me Ra’s 8 steps for photographing a Christmas tree, CLICK HERE!

If you are hungry for even more Christmas Tree Photo Tips, check out THIS POST where Carey Schumacher of Barefoot Memories chimes in!

Mamabloo and I would love to know what you think of Mamabloo’s first Photo Tale.  Should we share another one with you!  Post a comment and let us know.  (and post one fast b/c you know we are both going to be refreshing all day!  :))

 

xoxo, Me Ra

 

p.s.  Oh!  Wait!  I just got word as I was preparing this post that we have TWO NEW CONFIDENCE Workshops to announce for the Spring!  We are coming to Jersey City, NJ for all our East Coast ladies and also Huntington Beach, CA for our West Coast ladies!  It’s going to be a GREAT Spring!  If a CONFIDENCE Wkshp was on your Christmas Wish List, stay tuned this week for Registration Details—either Wed, Thursday or Friday :)!

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  1. Christina B says:

    Congrats Kari! This is great!!! .. Love the blog and it sure did get me laughing!! The pictures came out great =) Love it! Think her blog is going to be followed by me now.. nice to get a good chuckle! Now im going to have to read your 8 steps and try it out today/tonight!

    oh – and MeRa.. whats this you comin to Jersey City!!! COME ON.. i live a half hour away from there!!!!! Well like ive said.. the Seattle workshop was a journey i needed to take! AND so happy i did =D

  2. Christina says:

    That’s so great…too funny! I needed a laugh this morning so thank you. I’m totally gonna check out her blog…and your Christmas tree tips…how did I miss that post? I need to keep up!

  3. Billie says:

    I love this post. I would definitely like to see more of Kari’s tales.

  4. KimN says:

    Love the pics…I will look forward to trying some tree photos myself!

  5. mindy b. says:

    Love, love, love Mamabloo – and Me Ra, of course! Keep the hilarious tales coming … and I’m going to have to bookmark Mamabloo’s site, too!!! You ladies are AMAZING!!!

  6. Ceci says:

    Love it… love her sense of humor, look forward to more photo tales!

  7. Gramabloo says:

    Love Kari. And love all the wonderful photos you have taken over the years of my beautiful grandchildren. And love Dave, of course, for his perserverance. Hang in there Dave, I am sure there is more to come! Thanks Me Ra–

  8. Well done you! I think you got some great shots and loved the hilarious blow by blow!! You make me laugh, Kari! Of course, it warmed my heart to see the sweet Irish Cottage!

  9. Amanda Mays says:

    Love you, Love Kari sounds like a perfect combination to me! I’ve really enjoyed Mamabloo so far, the backpack post was hilarious! Funny stuff Kari, funny stuff!

  10. Very cool! I love mamabloo’s writing style – so fun! I SUPPORT SOAR!

  11. Ah…. Me Ra… you know me too well (“and post one fast….”).

  12. Rhonda says:

    I have been reading mamabloo since you announced it’s launch and I agree – Kari, you write in a way that is enjoyable and inviting. And this post was no different. Great job capturing you tree too!

  13. Connie says:

    I love Christmas trees too… have 6 of them in my house. Great job Kari… love your writing style… down to earth and real :). I SUPPORT SOAR!

  14. Rhonda says:

    I didn’t read the post about promoting Soar before I posted my comment above, but I SUPPORT SOAR. Truly I do. I’m telling everyone about it.

  15. Feuza says:

    She is hysterical, I am a photographer and I feel like that all the time, lol
    this is great!
    I support soar and that is so cool you will be in JERSEY!!!!

  16. Samantha says:

    I love it. Yes, please do more! And I support Soar!!

  17. Sandi B. says:

    Ahhhhhhhhggggggg…this is killing me. I have a brand new Sony SLR sitting under the tree and my husband won’t let me touch it until the 25th (I know what it is since I did my research and chose that one thanks to Me Ra.) So, I’m reading all this and can’t go grab my camera and try it out. I’ve really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments — I’m a new grandma so can’t wait to start taking those shots (I’ll even keep taking the photo’s of the grand-dogs too).

  18. Earle says:

    Love it! Kari, I enjoy your writing style and humor and hope this continues with you and Me Ra. I look forward to reading more of your “photo tales” here. Going to check out your blog too 🙂
    The pics look great! Way to go.

  19. ajira says:

    This is delightful! It’s awesome when you have guest posters Me Ra! Kari… you write beautifully. The imagery conjured through your words is vivid. Your life sounds like a barrel of laughs!! Love your blog too.

  20. Laura says:

    I looked up Me Ra’s recipe for Christmas tree shots and broke out hte tripod my loving husband bought me earlier in the year when I decided to take up photography as a hobby. I had fun playing and blogged my photos here – http://bombedier.blogspot.com/2009/12/o-tannenbaum.html

  21. Stephanie says:

    Lovely photos! I just took some photos of the huge christmas tree at our local museum. I could have spent hours photographing all the unique ornaments but with two kids that doesn’t happen. I SUPPORT SOAR!

  22. Kelly says:

    I’m inspired by Kary to start a new hobby: yogatography! 8 steps? I’m game.
    Should I try a close up or the whole tree when using 110 film? I do think it will make for shorter yoga poses.

  23. Kelly says:

    Ok, I actually do know how to spell Kari’s name – silly fingers.

  24. Sara says:

    I am new to your site, getting hooked by the minute, and would love to hear more of Kari’s stories.

    Yay, keep inspiring us mommies!

    -Sara

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