Holiday Photo Trend with Lucinda (my Dog)

This holiday season, I’m noticing two big photo trends making the rounds. One is a returning favorite: the cardboard boxes wrapped in festive paper, arranged and edited to resemble The Brady Bunch opening graphic. I spotted it last year and it’s definitely still going strong.

But the new trend that caught my eye—and the one I tried this week—is the “frosty window frame” setup. You’ve probably seen this one: you take a picture frame, frost or snow the glass, and place your pet or family behind it with the Christmas tree glowing in the background. The final image looks like you're peeking at a cozy moment from outside a frosty window.

I was excited to give this a shot. I headed to Michaels and picked up a large poster-size frame (it was buy-one-get-one-free, so now I have two to play with). I used a giant pot to help me brush on a ring of fake snow, leaving a clear circle in the middle of the frame. I’ve seen some photographers create a heart shape instead—which is adorable—but I kept mine simple.

Honestly, I expected the setup to be trickier than it ended up being. With the help of my wife and a few treats, we managed to get Lucinda—our half German Shepherd, half cattle dog mix—to pose perfectly. The bigger frame definitely helped; it gave me more room to work with and made it easier to line up the shot.

Of course, I relied on my trusty Westcott JF400, which always gives me crisp, clean images—especially of Lucinda. While editing, I realized I probably could’ve added even more fake snow around the edges. The opening I created in the center might’ve been a bit too large. To fix that, I layered in a little extra snow digitally. The combination of practical effects and subtle graphic overlays really helped sell the frosty-window illusion.

All in all, the project cost me about $40, and I’m happy with how it turned out. Next up: seeing if we can convince Rosco, our cat, to cooperate for his own frosty-window portrait. Wish us luck.