Christmas In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Text from the 2nd chapter of Luke's gospel. Base image from our church's courtyard and the graphic from clip art. Christmas Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 250; 1/160 sec @ f / 9. Merry Christmas one and all!
24 Dec 19 Working on the Christmas show the other day I took a hurried break (meaning failed to grab the camera) to get some Christmas stuff mailed and was just a wee bit down the road when the sky really grabbed my attention. It continued to hold my attention all the way to the P.O. and back home. Arriving back home I did grab the camera and hurriedly returned to where I could get a good shot of the sky. By the time I got there the sky had turned from what looked way too much like funnel clouds on my way to the P.O. to a group of what might be described as angry fists. I really expected to shortly be hit by a major storm but it apparently just worked itself out as we got neither wind nor rain anytime during the day. I've seen lots of interesting clouds around here as you know and have written about the convergence zone in which we live, but I've never seen anything like this around here before. This is basically straight from the camera. Stormy Morning Over Hansville Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture Priority; ISO 250; 1/640 sec @ f / 9.
19 Dec 19 A totally fun image for Theatrical Thursday. Between my Jr High years and until we made our first Navy move ('57 - '77), I kept and bred tropical fish. For most of that time I had a custom made 30 gallon display tank that was a feature object in both my parent's home and all of our homes. At one time I had over 8 tanks of fish in my parent's basement and was playing around with trying to breed new color variants of different species and even succeeded in developing a pure breeding bronze eyed guppy. Was feeling pretty cocky until they all died in a week's time. During the time I was doing all this it was common to put a background display on the exterior rear wall of the aquarium, either that of a nice photo that went with an aquarium theme or a crystal-like glaze which was my approach. Today we have a photo that could be used as a background for an aquarium depending on your tastes. I wouldn't use it as I prefer the more natural crystal look but I know folks who would. It if suits your fancy all you need to do is print it out and then go get your aquarium. Now, as to how I got to this image which I wanted to have look like one was snorkel or SCUBA diving with the sunlight filtering down and wave action overhead. As you know we have a sizeable pond out front as the center piece of the landscaping. Late summertime it started leaking and we were filling it 3 or so times a week. I finally decided that the only solution was to remove all the plants, fish, and support structures and then to drain it to see if I could locate the leak. Drained it to about 6 inches of depth and couldn't see the leak so let it stand. After several weeks of no further water loss I decided my only choice was to gunnite the entire pond. But first I thought I'd fill it up again to see at what level it was leaking, so I did. Since then no leaks. So now I basically have a full pond of water with a fully functioning waterfall sans fish which are in a temporary holding aquarium in the garage and plants in a large animal watering container on the front porch. The base shot is of the fish in the garage aquarium. Now the question is what should I do next. I've removed some distracting background and did some cropping to the original.It wasn't very sharp due to hand holding so I seriously sharpened it before making the conversion. Because of the type of conversion (Topaz Glow 2 / graphic sketch 1) I was able to get away with an original that wasn't critically sharp. Under Water Nikon D500; 18 - 200; Aperture priority; ISO 1250; 1/13 sec @ f / 9 hand held.
