Magic lights

I've been trying really hard to get a good shot of our Christmas tree for my December Daily album but nothing I've taken has ever been good enough. The problem I had was that with my flash you lose all the detail and warmth that is in the tree. Without the flash, the picture is too out of focus.

Before:

I managed to get these shots by resting my camera on a chair to steady it (no tripod in this house!) and then turning the flash off. These are much truer to the actual feel and warmth of the tree and the room.

But, patience is a virtue and today Ali Edwards posted a link to this blog which had a tutorial for getting bokeh style Christmas tree shots. We've had a busy day in London today so I'm too worn out to play too much but already I managed this shot of my magic lights, which I'm pretty pleased with.

I'm loving learning knew things with my camera. :)