Fortnightly challenge 8th-22nd December - Christmas
 

This fortnight's challenge. Having spent the day trying to take photos in the rain the challenge is - 'Christmas' - an obvious choice I know but one that everyone should be able to come up with something for.

Fortnightly Challenge is open to all members of WPF. The challenge will be run on (GMT) time.

Post your photo in this thread any time from 8th to midnight 22nd December.

Then a 3 day poll will be placed in this thread for voting on the photo you like best in this challenge.

Please give your photo a title.

The winner picks a challenge for the following fortnight and starts a new thread.

1. One photo per member
2. To be taken during period stated above
3. The photo must include exif data if possible with date and time
4. Post your entry as one attachment directly in this thread
5. No discussion of entries in the thread
6. Do not post any entries in the gallery until after the voting has finished

Good Luck to Everyone

Christmas paper abstract
 

Christmas paper abstract

xmas lights
 

Xmas lights in Nerja Spain.

Choirs of Angels
 

Hallelujah

Christmas Bauble
 

Christmas Bauble

Oh Christmas Tree

Miniature scene
 

Our sideboard scene!

Santa Splash
 

Santa Splash Portrush 2014

Voting now open :)

Thanks to those that voted for me - I'll get my thinking cap on for the first challenge of 2015

Congratulations, well done. Clive.

Congrats Clive, a lovely shot.

Behind the Scenes

Thanks to everyone that voted for me over Christmas.

No much the say about this shot other than it was a composite of two images - one shot at f2.0 to give a nice out of focus blur to the edges of the image & one shot at f16 create the star bust effect around the lights. The two were then layered in PS and a mask added to the f2 shot so that only the periphery showed through.

Notice how there are 18 points to the start bursts. If your lens has an even number of blades in the aperture diaphragm, you'll get that many star points - if there's an odd number of blades you'll get double the number of star points.

The Sigma I used has a 9 blade aperture diaphragm - hence 18 pointed star bursts :)