DIY SHELL NOTEBOOK

The kids made these for Christmas gifts this year and they were just gorgeous!  

The shells were quite dull and covered in periostracum so we prepared them first by cleaning them (see post).  Once they were cleaned and dried the kids drilled two holes (without too much pressure so they didn't break) at the bottom of the shells.  Then they cut different coloured paper to fit and punched holes in the paper.  Tie together with string and now you shell never be without a notebook again ;)  Oh and another point to mention was I made the kids wear dust masks while they were drilling as i don't thing shell dust is all that good for you :)

QUICK AND EASY WAY TO CLEAN SEASHELLS

We not only have buckets of shells I'm pretty sure I have some boxes of shells hiding somewhere too!  The kids love finding shells at the beach and have made some pretty cool stuff with them.  If you have collected some shells they may quite possibly be covered in algae and periostracum so will need a clean to really show their prettiness - not to mention rid them of any nasty smells.  The stench of rotten shellfish isn't all that appealing i'm sure.  So here's how we did it..

Put shells in a bucket with 50:50 water/bleach.  Leave them to soak for at least a couple of hours.  Rinse them off and use a bristled nail brush or similar to get rid of anything left on the shell.  Once they are dry put a tiny bit of baby oil on a rag and rub over the shell - this will really bring out their colours.  Easy as that!

Christmas Bokeh - It's easier than you think!

What you will need to create beautiful bokeh christmas photos:

Christmas lights

A lens with a low aperture (I used Canon 50mm 1.8 for these shots)

Tripod (not necessary)

The last two images were shot at night in much lower lighting conditions. When shooting in low light your shutter speed will be significantly slower risking blur (in which case you should use a tripod to minimize camera shake).  In saying that I didn't get out the tripod for any of these.

The size of the bokeh will depend on a number of factors including how far the subject is from the lights and how close you are to the subject so experiment with different distances and get ready to take some beautiful images!

Below each image you will see the settings I used including Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO.

 f/1.8

1/500 sec

ISO 400

 f/1.8

1/125 sec

ISO 400

f/1.8

1/125 sec

ISO 400

For the following shots of just the lights set your lens to Manual Focus (instead of Auto Focus) and adjust the Focus Manually (usually by turning a Focus Ring on your lens) so the lights are out of focus and take the shot

f/1.8

1/250 sec

ISO 400

f/1.8

1/250 sec

ISO 400

 f/1.8

1/3 sec

2000 ISO

f/1.8

1/4 sec

ISO 1250