I decided to pull out my Canon D Mark II while on our trip to my folks' house for an early Christmas. There's just something special about this camera with a 50mm lens attached. And the warmth of the holiday's and lights that go with it.

I decided to practice shooting in total manual mode so I had a whole slew of dark, underexposed, blurry shots as I adjusted settings. I'm convinced that shooting in manual mode has really helped me learn settings I'd normally take for granted.

In this shot I notice that there's some blur because I had the depth of field set too shallowly. My dad and son were reading a Christmas book together and my dad is perfectly focused while the book and my son are slightly blurred. So next time increase the focal depth.