Bokeh, baby

I'm not really a gadget person--I have a pay-by-the-minute cell phone, and that says it all. But I do love, LOVE my camera, which is a Canon Digital Rebel xti. I am the farthest thing from even a hobbyist as a photographer, but I take so many photos I think I will burn out my hard drive. The digital camera just begs to take shot after indiscriminate shot, and so our photo file has almost 8000 photos, lots of which I could discard, but haven't.

All of that aside, many of photos I take are just experiments with composition or light or subject, whatever. Here is my latest experiment, and I thought I'd share it with you.

Bokeh is the light effect of blurred little hearts that you see in this photo of Ada.  Bokeh is not really the blur, but describes the character of the blurred elements behind the object in focus. There are many great websites that talk about the nuances of bokeh, including this one by Ken Rockwell.  Bokeh can be the way the points of unfocused light blur naturally, or you can make your own bokeh lens hood to create different shapes with the light.  I used hearts, but you could come up with whatever you like.

I love the way you can create bokeh with Christmas lights in the background, and so I tried to make a few shots myself, using my little handmade bokeh lens hood. I learned how from this site on DIY photography.

Here is my lens:

As you can see, it is the sloppiest handmade thing ever.  I used dark paper, some scotch tape, and I cut the heart out with a scissors.   I traced the circular lens and cut a circle from the dark paper.  I cut a strip to go around the lens.  Then I cut a heart in the center of the paper circle.  I taped it all up.  Then I slipped it over my camera's lens.  Making this took me all of 2 minutes, obviously.  

To my credit, I made a neater second one with a cute little Martha Stewart heart-punch, but it was too small, and didn't let enough light in to get a real focused shot.   My first slop-job did the trick with the light, and so it was good enough.

The lens I used is the one I use most: A Canon 50mm 1:1.4. It takes some really nice pictures in low light. I almost always hate a flash, and this lets me do what I want without one, for the most part.


To get the photos, I had to get the blur, or bokeh, far enough into the background, so by trial and error I found that Ada had to move some distance (maybe 5 feet) from the tree to be the object of the focus. Then the background of the lights naturally fell out of focus, and caught the light in the shape of the lens hood hole.


Here are a few more shots I got later at night. This time I had problems getting a good image of the object in front of me, probably because I wouldn't turn on lights. 

And because our tabby kitty kept moving toward the lens to be petted. But I do like these hearts floating behind her silhouette, and while I'm sure I'm alone in this, I love this softy shot of our favorite quilt on my knee. 

If you still have your Christmas or Hanukah lights up, you should make a little bokeh experiment for yourself. Very fun, very cheap, and only takes a few minutes.

The chipmunk costume how to, part 1

As promised, here is how I made the chipmunk costume. This is heavy on the details, so for those not interested in the nitty-gritty, just take a peek at the photos. Esme is pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

By the way, If you've stumbled onto this via a google search on how to make a chipmunk costume, I'd be happy to help if you have questions or need to see additional photos. Feel free to drop me an email.

How I made the chipmunk costume: I couldn't find a pattern for one, so I started with something close, a skunk. I used the McCall's pattern 8938 by Tom Arna.





First, the materials: I used four different types of faux fur, including fake fox, and three colors of fake rabbit, which I got from fabric.com. (While I was working with this stuff in the studio, I had to reassure our pet rabbit, Mr. H, that it was indeed not from a cousin of his.) For the ear details, I used some tan Ultrasuede. Unlike Ada's costume, this one has a conventional muslin lining for the hood, which makes it much softer to wear, and makes it less flimsy. The interior of the fur isn't scratchy, but not soft, either.


Next, the modifications to the pattern:
The stripes were the most obvious thing to change. Of course, I had to make it chipmunky, which meant piecing together very thin strips of fur and making a long piece to put onto the back. I used faux fox for the middle part of the stripe and the various faux rabbit colors for the edges. I decided to use the stripe as a cover for the zipper. I attached half of the stripe on one side of the zipper, and the other half attaches with velcro. I lined the stripe with muslin to makea better ground for the muslin and to reinforce the pieced stripe. Also, instead of making a separate stripe to sew to the headpiece when finished, I integrated it into the headpiece itself. Again, it's sturdier.
The tail attaches with two buttons attached to the end of the stripe. I omitted the foam the Arna design calls for, and the tail is much softer and more flexible.



I also added "wings" to the sides of the costume, to mimic the flaps that rodents seem to have under their arms. I drew a pattern for them based on how high she normally raises her arms to reach for something. The idea was that there would be slack when she was standing, and she wouldn't be constrained by them no matter what she did. To get the right effect, I figured out that I needed to sew the wings together at the outside edges, and then attach them with handstitching--one side to the belly, and the other side to the back. It's sort of like a pillowcase with one side of each opening attached to the body of the costume. I love the overall effect, and they are really cute when she moves, as she is showing in this blurry photo.

The belly and arms are modified from the Arna design as well, which calls for a single white patch to be sewn onto the belly. For a more realistic feel, I sewed the belly in sections of color, and then matched the wings and arms to it accordingly.

Finally, the ears: I used bits from all the furs together and then handstiched them together to get the idea of a more natural ear. It's rougher than I would like, but it works for a costume. Can you tell this was one of the last things I did to finish it?

A few cautions: While it is clean after being sewn, faux fur REALLY sheds while you are sewing it. I found myself coughing and wheezing while I cut it, and I had to get a dust mask to continue.

Faux fur is also tough on needles on the machine. I went through 5, even with the machine on half-speed and without needle basting.





The end result? It feels pretty chipmunky to me. And it is warm and snuggly enough for a New England Halloween. Esme wants to keep wearing it (the bottom part, at least) after she gets it on. And it's huggably cute. Success.


Part two is by request from the grandparents--just some cute shots of Esme as the chipmunk.