Merry Photo Christmas!

Another year has come and almost gone, and here it is, Christmas again. You may have guessed already that I love Christmas, especially the colors and lights that brighten up this dark time of year.

Lately, I've been experimenting a lot more with my camera, especially with shutter speeds and ISO settings. I thought it might be fun to share a few of my camera experiments here on the blog, as well as a couple seasonal images, too.

I'm intrigued by what my camera does when I set a long exposure and move the camera while I press the shutter. The other day I made several photos using this technique. Here are my favorites—I call them my Christmas fantasies.

Pretty cool, huh? I love the long strings of color! For those of you who are photography nerds, the first photo was taken with a .5-second shutter speed and an f9 aperture, and the second had a .8-second shutter speed and an aperture of f16. The ISO setting for both photos was 3200.

This time of year, I also love experimenting with bokeh, a Japanese term meaning blur or haze. Bokeh is a fairly common background feature of any photo with a short depth of field, but around the holidays, it's really fun to play with intentional bokeh and Christmas lights.  Here is one of my favorites, which I took last Christmas.

Here is my favorite bokeh photo from this year, a combination of clarity and blur.

Experimentation is fun, but sometimes I just want to capture some of the magic and memories that surround this wonderful holiday. This little wooden man has hung on the Christmas tree every year since I was five years old. He was a gift from Santa in my stocking that Christmas and went on the tree immediately. He brings back many sweet memories of Christmases past...

So here is my wish for you this Christmas: may your holiday be filled with color, light and happy memories!

Picturing the Winter Solstice

Four times a year, on the spring and autumn equinoxes and the summer and winter solstices, I use my camera to document the activities of my day. I started doing this exactly six years ago yesterday, when the theme of the day was this:

That's right: SNOW. It was not your typical wimpy Seattle dusting, but an actual foot of snow, which made that winter solstice memorable, indeed.

Nothing quite as momentous happened this year on the winter solstice, but it was still a very happy and celebratory day, nonetheless.

I started the day by opening the 21st window on my Advent calendar.

Then I ate some Christmas Stollen with my coffee, and finished the heel on my sock—my second-ever Fish Lips Kiss heel.

Later, I joined my knitting friends for our annual Christmas celebration, with presents!

I went from knitting with friends to eating with friends. I took the bus downtown and met my two oldest friends (from first and third grades) and we ate at a window table at the Athenian Inn in the Pike Place Market.

My eyes were bigger than my stomach! My lunch was a clam chowder bowl that I managed to eat only about half of, but it certainly was good!

Next, I headed back home, and soon after, Mr. D and I went to my sister-in-law's house to celebrate the sixth night of Hanukkah with Mr. D's family. It's really wonderful having two light-filled holidays to celebrate at this dark time of year.

We ate a wonderful dinner, including, my favorite—potato latkes—and then sang songs and opened presents. Mr. D was really happy with his gift from me, a guidebook to identifying the mushrooms that he sees while hiking.

But the best part of the evening was the light from the candles in the menorah, which for me is a reminder that there is always light, even on the darkest night.

Whatever holidays you celebrate—Solstice, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza—I wish you peace, happiness and light this holiday season!

Feeling Christmas

Christmas isn't a season, it's a feeling.

- Edna Ferber

Best wishes for a peaceful and happy Christmas and all that's good in the New Year.