Christmas Memories

Thoughts of Family

The final photos I’ll share from the recent snowfall were taken at the site of the old mill in Lewisville, now primarily occupied by the Enchanted Cottage, a popular rubber stamping, scrapbooking and papercrafts business.

My fascination with the mill goes back to my childhood, when I used to play there with my younger brother, Ed. Our grandfather, Fielden H. Jennings, Sr., owned the mill. Several of my uncles and my mother, Grace, the youngest of ten children, helped run the family business for almost 60 years.

In fact, my mother was born in the old “cottage” next to the mill. A year after her birth, the family moved into their new brick home next door. (For more on the history of my family’s association with the mill, please read the article on Lewisville Roller Mills.)
CLICK to read more on Deb’s CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

Photos Within

Surprise

The surprise discovery I referred to in the earlier post, Before the Lights Come Down, was finding that there were actually several distinct photos within the initial photo that could stand on their own. This photo is from the lower left-hand portion of the initial shot. If you’d like, take a moment to click on the link to the earlier post so you can compare the two photos.

During the process of photographing at Shallowford Square, I simply didn’t see the additional photos that existed in portions of the scene. But, of course, I had gone to the Square with the intent of shooting wide shots — as many as I could in the rapidly fading last light of the day.

The other photos that I discovered within the initial photo focus on narrower portions of the scene. Please CLICK to see the other photos within the photo.

Before the Lights Come Down

Sunset at Shallowford Square was the perfect time to create this HDR (High Dynamic Range) photo yielding unbelievable detail throughout.

Prelude to an Uncertain Photo

Boy, was this image ever fun to work on! Of course, it wasn’t fun when I first thought I should go back out in the cold to get the shot! After all, it was New Year’s Eve, and I’d already spent a good portion of the day photographing the first phase of the Nissen House move.

When I arrived home after photographing at the Nissen House site, it felt so good to be in from the cold and the wind. I immediately began offloading the day’s images from the memory cards and was anxious to start editing them.

And then it occurred to me that, with all the December activities, I’d not managed to make any wide-angle shots of Shallowford Square decorated with its Christmas lights. I knew the lights would probably be up for about a week more, so I could wait till another day, if I’d like. But the reality was that there was no guarantee that my schedule and the weather would coincide ideally before the lights were taken down.

Decisions, Decisions

It’s times like this when I sometimes battle with myself, and I don’t always make the best long-term decision. I should photograph such-and-such, but….

If I’m too lax with myself, I’ll miss out on some good photos that can’t be easily or quickly replicated, if at all. On the other hand, photography doesn’t completely control my life, so I’m not compulsively driven to capture every single moment.

A few weeks earlier, my excursions to photograph Christmas lights were under different conditions. For instance, the photo for the Never Forgotten post was shot during a cloudy sunrise, and the photo for the Lights, Camera…Snow? post was taken at pitch dark. I’d since determined that my next attempt at Christmas light photography would involve photographing them just prior to, during and after a cloudless sunset.

So as I looked out the front window at the brilliant, clear sunlight of the remaining hours of New Year’s Eve, I made the somewhat ambivalent decision to head up to Shallowford Square for a sunset shot of the Christmas lights. CLICK to read more.

Proclamation

With the angelic host proclaim, “Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
— “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”

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