What I really miss about living in Germany during this festive season are all the ” “colors” of the Weinachten: the colors, the lights, the feeling. You just don’t see that here in the U.S., it seems. If you’ve ever been to the Christmas markets in Germany, you know what I mean. This little tree in Vienna, Virginia, which I photographed with my X100 a few days before I came back to California, brought those memories rushing back, as did post processing the shot for today’s post.
Show of hands! How many of you have read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, or watched any of the many movie versions? If you have, you almost certainly remember the scene of Ebenezer’s Scrooge’s transformation near the end of the story after when Ebenezer awakens into his new life following the visit of the Ghost of Christmas Future. Everything in the world is now new, bright and beautiful to him. He was reborn. When I drove past this scene the yesterday with my family I was reminded of that beautiful day of Christmas he did not miss after-all, and I quickly pulled over to capture the scene. Sadly, I was in such a rush that I forgot to reset my camera’s ISO to 200 from the 500 I had used the day before indoors, so I had to do a little extra cleaning up of the extra noise produced in post-processing when I blended all the brackets together in Photomatix Pro. While I’m not entirely happy with the final results (specifically, loss of detail on the Berliner Dom), I am satisfied enough to post the result here for you to see.
On this, the second Advent, I wish all of you, my dear friends, wherever you may be, a wonderful and festive Holiday. I pray that all of you are well loved, and that you love others as much as you wish to be loved. I pray, as well, that all of us are able to share time (truly the most priceless of all gifts,’cause once it’s spent, it’s gone!) with people we love, and who love us, and that we also use some of that time to reach out to those who need it the most, but who may have been forgotten. Remember, it’s not about YOU or ME!! Blessings to all of you!!
