Nikon D200, Nikon 24-70 lens, 1/250th sec at f/8, ISO 400
Photographed on April 23, 2009

The year is almost over, and so I decided to pick out some of my very best images as my favorite images I created in 2009. It wasn’t easy … I couldn’t decide on just one so I created eight categories: Photoshop, Point & Shoot, iPhone, Portrait, Action, Stock, Lensbaby and then one last overall favorite from the year to top them off.

The image above is my favorite “Photoshopped” image from this year. I, of course, do editing to all of my photos, but this was a composite image that required a lot more work, and it was pre-visualized and well-thought-out before I photographed each element (my face and also a cracked egg to use as the head crack). It’s also representative of a difficult time that I was going through earlier in the year, which is now very much in my past but I can look at this photo and know that I am where I am (both geographically and emotionally) because of it. Photography is and always will be a very personal thing for me and this is a perfect example of my own “visual poetry”.

Over the next four days I will be posting the other seven images from the year, so be sure to check back!

View more of Nicole’s “Photos of the Year”:

- Photo of the Year (overall)
- Point & Shoot Category
- iPhone Category
- Portrait Category
- Action Category
- Stock Category
- Lensbaby Category

Canon 7D, Canon 24-105 ƒ/4L IS, 30 sec exposure at ƒ/16, ISO 100

I’m no Grinch when it comes to Christmas, but being single and all alone this year it didn’t seem worth the time/effort to deck out my house with holiday decorations … aside from a few Glad holiday candles on my kitchen table. ;) So I did the next best thing and used Photoshop to do the work for me. I saw this tutorial on Planet Photoshop on adding Christmas lights to a house and used a bunch of Corey’s techniques to do the same thing to my home in Utah.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Canon 7D, Canon 24-105 ƒ/4L IS, 20 sec exposure at ƒ/18, ISO 100

We had a lot of snow in Utah yesterday, just in time for Christmas! When I got home last night I noticed the air was nice and calm, and it wasn’t very cold and, after shoveling snow and dragging my trash to the curb I looked over at one of the houses in my cul-de-sac and the lights in my neighbor’s yard really caught my eye. So I went to my house and grabbed my camera and tripod and got this shot. I just love how the lights glow under the fresh snow right after a storm.

Nikon D200, Lensbaby Composer, Double Glass Optic/Star Aperture, 15 sec exposure, ISO 100

If you use a Lensbaby and have the “Creative Aperture” set then you might find this technique fun, especially during the holidays when there is a plethora of lights all around. The photo above was not manipulated in Photoshop (other than basic color/tone adjustments) – it’s a long exposure photographed with a Lensbaby. Heres’s how to achieve a similar effect:

- You will need an SLR camera, Lensbaby*, and the Creative Aperture Kit
- Find a scene that has a lot of lights and requires a long-exposure (several seconds)
- With your Lensbaby, use a creative aperture, such as the heart or star (or make your own!)
- Once you have your focusing and proper exposure time set on your image, start your exposure and about half-way to two-thirds through the exposure defocus your lens. You might need to try defocusing at different times to get a good overall look to the image (it does require some trial-and-error).

The end result should give you a normal scene with large bokeh shapes where the lights are from whatever shaped aperture you had in your lens.

*It might be possible to create the same effect by using a non-Lensbaby lens and a DIY bokeh shape. I’ve never tried it before, but theoretically it should work the same way. (If you want to give it a shot with a DIY, please let me know how it turns out!)

I found this image in use through a Google Alert today … here’s a link to the original image on iStock, and a link to the website it was found on. :)

Canon 7D, Lensbaby Composer, Star Aperture. 1/30th sec at ISO 3200

Last night there were more than 130 people at the Photowalking Utah “Holiday Light Clinic and Photowalk” – I’m pretty sure that’s a record for the Photowalking Utah group … wow! We started out at the library, where Rich Legg gave a wonderful presentation on photographing in low-light situations. Then we headed out (all 130 of us) on the TRAX train to photograph the beautiful Christmas lights of Temple Square, downtown Salt Lake City Utah.

This was my second time in Temple Square and my first time seeing it all decked-out with Christmas lights. It was really crowded, and I was so busy talking and meeting new people that I barely took any photos. ;) The display was absolutely beautiful, and I do plan on heading down there before the end of the year on my own to get some more shots.

To view more of the photos from the walk, please visit the Photowalking Utah Flickr group. To watch for upcoming Photowalking Utah events please check out the blog.

Photographs courtesy Jim Berneike – Used with permission

One of the photographers at the Salt Lake City YWCA Help Portrait event on Saturday took individual portraits of each of the photographers (minus one who had to leave early). I saw them on his Flickr stream and thought they were so wonderful … so he let me share them with you here.

Thanks, Jim! :)