Photo Of The Week

Today's photo of the week was taken by Geoff Hansen with Geoff Hansen Photography. 

Hansen said "This is a shot of the “Santa Train” operated by the Napa Valley Wine Train. This Santa-themed train takes families up the Napa Valley each evening during December with Mr. Claus and a full complement of elves and related characters and holiday goodies."

To see more work from Geoff Hansen visit his website at www.geoffhansen.photography. You can also follow him on Instagram.

We Want To Feature Your Work!

Do you have some really amazing photos you have taken recently or some of your past work that you simply love? We want to see! Each Tuesday, we will be featuring a "photo of the week" right here on the Camera Giveaways blog. We are looking for anything from amazing landscape photos, a gorgeous wedding or engagement shot, sports or animal photography, an awesome fashion photo...whatever you want to share, we would love to see!

Email your photos to contact@cameragiveaways.com with the subject "CG Blog Photo Submission" for consideration. In your email be sure to include a description of your photo, your name and company name as well as website and social media links. Please... no watermarks! If this information is not included, your photo will not be included.

3 Tips On How To Photograph Festive Christmas Lights

It's the holiday season and with that comes Christmas trees, beautiful decorations, twinkling lights and all things sparkly! If you are going to be out photographing festive Christmas lights over the holiday, we wanted to share some tips with you that will help make sure those photos come out beautifully. 

When you are photographing holiday lights, it will most likely be when the surrounding environment is dark. Here there are a few things you can do to insure great pictures in these situations:

Photo credit: Digital Trends

Shoot at higher ISO settings. 

EOS cameras set to "Auto" ISO will naturally tend to pick higher ISOs in these types of low-light scenes. Or, you can set ISO somewhere around 1600, 3200, or even higher if the holiday lights you're shooting are not super-bright. If you use higher ISOs – that means less chance of blurs from any motion blur.

Use a tripod. 

A tripod is the best way to keep your camera still while taking your photos. If you don't have a tripod, see if you can lean the camera against something like a lamp post, bench, or other solid surface. If there is nothing to brace the camera on, make sure you are holding it as steadily as possible and hold the camera firmly with both hands. Use your optical viewfinder (rather than the LCD) if you have one, so you can rest the camera against your face.

Photo credit: DIY Network

Use a wide-angle lens. 

Wider focal lengths, such as 16mm, 18mm, 24mm, etc. are much more 'forgiving,' showing little-to-no blur from camera movement, even at slower shutter speeds. Consider stepping closer to those lights, and zooming the lens to a wider focal length, to minimize blurs and camera shake.

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5 Background Ideas For Holiday Portraits

The holidays are a wonderful time of year and a great time to take portraits of families, couples and children! You can take portraits of old customers or even find new customers while promoting your holiday mini-sessions or special deals. 

When you are taking holiday photos, you want to have fun, festive holiday themed backgrounds that work perfectly with the age of the people who you photographing. You can buy items to use in your background or as a prop that you can reuse year after year.  

Today, we want to share with you 5 background ideas we love that would be perfect for your holiday portraits. We hope these bring you a little inspiration for your own backgrounds for all the beautiful holiday portraits you will be taking throughout the season. 

What is more festive than a Christmas tree farm?!? Take photos of your clients in front of a few beautiful Christmas trees. Perhaps add some decorations to the tree or the snowflakes like in the photo below and bring a holiday blanket to sit on and you have created the perfect holiday scene! 

Photo credit: Sara Garcia Photo via Pinterest

For a couple, just adding a cute Santa hat or a little garland can make it so festive and fun! 

Photo credit: Lauren McBride The Blog via SnapKnot

If you are photographing children, it is fun to include cute props like in this photo below. The boy is wearing a Santa hat, eating cookies and drinking milk... you can recreate this background so easily with just a few items and even by using some of your own Christmas decorations from home. The sky is the limit! 

Photo credit: Milk & Honey Photography

Even a simple indoor set with a decoration or two and a Santa hat makes this sweet baby look festive! We love this simple design that still creates a beautiful holiday portrait. 

Photo credit: Milk & Honey Photography

This is such a cute idea to wrap yourself in a string of holiday lights. This couple is snuggled up in their winter long johns! It is a good idea to have a few additional props on hand in case you feel like the photos you are snapping need a little more color or uniqueness and a string of lights is always something easy to bring along - just make sure they are battery operated if you are shooting outdoors! 

Photo credit: Pinterest

We hope these 5 background ideas for holiday portraits have brought you a little inspiration for prop, location and even pose ideas for all of the holiday portraits you are starting to take this holiday season. If you have any other great ideas, please feel free to share them with us in the comment below! Happy holidays everyone! 

Here are a few other holiday related posts you may enjoy:

• How To Take Awesome Photos Of Christmas Lights
• 10 Tips For Better Holiday Photos

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5 Holiday Photography Favorites

The holidays are such a wonderful time of year! From colorful decorated Christmas trees, twinkling white lights, and all of the excitement that we share during this special time of year, it really is a magical time that brings out the children in all of us! We hope that each one of you have a great holiday and take some amazing photographs (and of course be sure to share them all with us)!

Enjoy these 5 holiday photography favorites that we simply love! 

We love this gorgeous Christmas cottage in Grand Isle, Vermont. 

Photo credit: George Robinson via 500px.com

Who doesn't love seeing the excitement of Christmas through a child's eyes? Here are two kids reading a Christmas story together in front of their Christmas tree! 

Photo credit: Corrie Lindroos Photography

The holidays are even a great time of year to say "I do!" This is such a fun idea for bride and groom photo at their Christmas wedding.

Photo credit: SnapKnot.com

Decorating the tree is the perfect time to capture some great photos of your family or friends. Here are some great tips on photographing Christmas lights that you may want to read! 

Photo credit: Trains and Tutus

We absolutely love this snowy holiday photo... and happy snowman and gorgeously decorated tree. 

Photo credit: Christmas 4U

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