Some good use out of a kit lens.

I was messing around the other night with one of the kit lens that comes with the Canon 60D.  The 18-135 zoom with image stabilization is a decent lens.  I have had some good luck with it on several shoots (like the majority of us, I wish it was a little faster -3.5/5.6).  I did find a fun use for it though.

Being that time of year with the Christmas decorations strewn about the house, I had a question.  How can you take fun low light holiday pictures without a tripod.  I know that setting up a tripod is not THAT big of a deal, but what if you just didn't want to drag the thing out?

Found a fun technique that takes very little effort, a zoom lens, and some Christmas lights.  Set your camera to manual.  Crank the shutter speed to, oh say a second and a half or two seconds and the aperture to F-11. Now zoom all the way in on a Christmas decoration or light, and focus on it.  This is where manual focus is nice as it will stay focused on the light, or lock in your auto-focus.

Now start playing.  Zoom in and out, adjust your time on the shutter speed... have some fun. Over the time, only zoom in and see what it does.  Zoom all the way in, and only zoom out over the shot.  You can end up with some very fun pics.  OH, also add in some flash.  I shot a couple with the built in flash, and they turned out great.