My final holiday photo for 2008. I couldn't resist. Santa visiting with my clay giraffe that I made last year. I just bought this little vintage Santa at an antique store in Santa Barbara while on a mini holiday excursion, last Friday, to visit a good friend. And I also could not resist because this photo is taken with my Christmas gift from Sean ~ my new lensbaby! Inspired by Stephanie's gorgeous photos who has mentioned that she sometimes uses a lensbaby ~ I've wanted one since I got my new camera last year. Well I guess my camera isn't that new anymore, but I have enjoyed using it SO much over the past 12 months, that it still feels like new. And I especially LOVE it with the lensbaby. It creates the most wonderful effects on each picture, usually by softening the edges depending on how you angle it. All manual in its use (I have an early model, the 2.0), you never know entirely what you'll get with each image ~ and that's where the creative magic lies.
