Merry Christmas! &c.

My little writer's haven in the Finger Lakes, built 1880,
restored 2012. I work on the front porch.

As I do every year about this time, I'll be shuttering TOP for a few days in observance of Christmas. I hope all of you Jewish readers had a lovely Hanukkah, and I wish all of you Christians (and secular Christmas celebrants) a wonderful holiday—not forgetting our friends who celebrate other holidays around this time of year. Special mention for those of you who will find yourselves alone. I hope you have a good, peaceful, restful day on the 25th as well.

Be good to yourselves and be good to others, my friends. Goodwill to all, in the spirit of the season. See you a few days hence.

Mike

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Brendon: "Merry Christmas to you too Mike. Enjoy the break and thanks for all you do for us enthusiasts out here in Internet-land. Certainly different here in terms of the weather in Western Oz, ha ha. Just got back from (Preston) beach with a nice tan for my efforts. Fish weren't biting though, darn it."

Roger Bradbury: "Just the photo for Xmas on a photographer's blog; we can imagine you waiting in the cold as the ambient light level fell until it was just right, then taking the photo and going back in the warm. Happy Christmas, Mike."

Mike replies: Actually quite the opposite! I'm afraid it wasn't intentional at all. I was trudging back from a nice visit with my neighbors Les and Joyce, a way I don't often come, and it afforded me a view of the house I don't often see, so I whipped out the iPhone and made a couple of quick snaps. The only photo-dawg aspect of it was that I had to do quite a bit of work to get the tree of lights to look like it actually looks—digital, or at least the digital I can afford, doesn't do at all well with those tiny LEDs, for some reason rendering them as tiny and mostly white dots—it misses the glow the eye sees, as well as most of the color. So the tree has had some Photoshoppery applied to bring out the color, and then some more to hide the artifacts of the changes. The result is quite accurate to the visual impression of the actual scene, in my judgment, but it's not quite what the iPhone's camera gave me.

I did go out the next day with the X-T2 when the ambient light was just right, with some lights on in the house, and tried to recreate the shot, but some of the snow had melted, the light was different, and what I got when I was trying harder weren't pictures, just snapshots. The X-T2 didn't do any better with the tiny LEDs, either.

I got a wonderfully illustrated e-missive from Michael McCaskey yesterday, of pictures he took in Ethiopia, and he mentioned that he's going to be getting an iPhone X to learn to use its camera. He suggested I try some serious posts about photographing with an iPhone in 2018, and I think I'll take his advice on that. Meanwhile this Christmas picture has joined my Finger Lakes iPhone portfolio, which I thought I was finished with.

Thanks to everyone for the holiday greetings, and right back at ya! Ho ho.

Comments

[plus.google.com/104639465182554298916]

Merry Christmas Mike, best wishes for the new year!

[Richard Khanlian]

What a lovely image!

[Ken Tanaka]

Back at ya, Mike! What a lovely photo.

[longviewer]

Needs a red sleigh out front :^)
Happy Christmas to all, or your preferred celebration of the turning of darkness back toward light.

[Ben Rosengart]

That’s a sweet photo, Mike. Merry Christmas to you and may 2018 be kind to you and your people.

[Mark Kinsman]

Merry Christmas Mike! Nice picture...nice to see some snow. Hope you get some family time in.

[Richard Parkin]

Merry Yuletide and best wishes for the New Year!

[Giovanni Maggiora]

Enjoy the holidays, Mike, and thanks for your company all along the year.

[Wolfgang Lonien]

Merry Christmas, Mike, happy holidays, and all the best to you & yours. Nice house you have there.

[Rod S.]

Mike, best wishes for a happy and restorative Christmas season for you.
Rod

[Mike.]

Christmas greetings to you and yours, Mike. Thank you for TOP.

[Don Parsons]

Merry Christmas Mike! Thanks for allowing us to be part of your year.

[Simon Griffee]

Wishing you a good new spin around the sun, Mike!

[Jim A]

Zip up that jacket when you go outside young man!

I'm listening to Vince Guaraldi's "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and sipping coffee as I admire your lovely photo. Thanks for sharing, and Merry Christmas!

[Jim Bullard]

Merry Christmas Mike to you and your dog.

[Stephen F Faust]

The photo would make a lovely Christmas card! Merry Christmas and thank you for all of your efforts through the year, from a loyal reader and (very) infrequent commenter.

[Philomaphos]

Merry Christmas, Mike, thank you for your insightful and entertaining writing.

[Andrew Lamb]

Happy Christmas to one and all. Peace on earth, please.

[Bruce Bodine]

Merry Christmas Mike to you and your family! Now I know what your home looks like, very nice.

[Peter Wright]

Have a great Christmas holiday season. May you be recharged and rested when you come back.

(Of course, I ordered my copy of your book of the year. It's a no brainer. I have learned so much about photography by simply following the advice you give out. Thanks again.)

[Stephen Scharf]

Merry Christmas, Mike! Thanks for making TOP, once again, at the top of my every day photography reading list.

Best wishes for the New Year to you and all the wonderful community of folks at TOP.

[Dennis Mook]

Merry Christmas Mike. Thank you for another year of stimulationg prose. Hope next year is your best ever!

[Eric Erickson]

Mike, Merry Christmas to you as well. Enjoy a few days away from the blog. Thanks for all your good work in 2017 and have a happy and healthy new year.

[Fred Haynes]

To you too, Mike!
Merry Christmas, and have a wonderful new year!
I like the picture. The only thing I'd add is to have some lights on.
Cheers, Fred

[Clayton]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzV_UCQFY6w

[Peter McKenzie]

Merry Christmas Mike, thank you for your time and the pleasure of your writing.

[Ned Bunnell]

Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo!

(I’m in an Italian mood as my wife let me open my new espresso coffee grinder so I can practice getting the grind just right for Christmas morning.)

[Dan Khong]

Merry Christmas and a great New Year, Mike.

Your writing makes me think and helps me to be creative. Also proves that the pen can be mightier than the sword.

Your abode looks good with the snow. In 1880, it would have lived to see the American Civil War, if my history is correct. Double wow!

[Close but not quite—the Civil War spanned five Aprils, from Gen. P. T. Beauregard firing on Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, in April 1861, to the surrender following the Battle of Appomattox Courthouse in April1865, when two Army Corps of Federal troops cut off Gen. Robert E. Lee, as he fled with the remnants of his once-proud army hoping to join forces with Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in the West.

I'd like to know more about the history of my house, but it appears to be too modest to have made much of an impression--I've discovered several historical photos of it locally, and have heard some local lore from older residents, but the only thing I really know about it is that for many years there was a log cabin on the grounds that was a waystop for watering and feeding horses on the local postal routes. The cabin survived till the 1970s, when, despite efforts to preserve it, it was torn down. I have a photo of it though. --Mike]

[kirk tuck]

Merry Christmas Mike! Thanks for making photography seem important and smart.

[Phil]

Merry Christmas to you too, Mike. I enjoy everything you write, even when I don't agree! Have a well-deserved rest. I look forward to more photo-dawg-ism and off-topic surprises in the New Year!

[David Saxe]

Nice Pic. Merry Christmas.

[grigoris]

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[Alex]

Beautiful image that reflects the spirit of the season.
May you have happiness and continuing success in 2018.

[Mani Sitaraman]

Where's the red Adirondack chair for Santa to rest in?

Just kidding.

Merry Christmas, Mike!

[Jim]

As has been said many times here. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

[D. Hufford]

Now that's a Christmas photo! I wish you a merry Christmas and happy New Year. I look forward to yet another year of the best photography writing on the internet.

[Bryan Hansel]

Happy Holidays! Thanks for another year of entertainment and thought provoking articles.

[Lynn]

Merry Christmas and enjoy your break, Mike - you've earned it.

[Pritam Singh]

Merry Christmas...
Thanks for all your articles, much appreciated and always enjoyed.
Power to you to keep the light shining bright!

[Dave Sailer]

For E.B. White fans...

From this high midtown hall, undecked with boughs, unfortified with mistletoe, we send forth our tinselled greetings as of old, to friends, to readers, to strangers of many conditions in many places.

Merry Christmas to uncertified accountants, to tellers who have made a mistake in addition, to girls who have made a mistake in judgment, to grounded airline passengers, and to all those who can't eat clams! We greet with particular warmth people who wake and smell smoke.

To captains of river boats on snowy mornings we send an answering toot at this holiday time.

Merry Christmas to intellectuals and other despised minorities!

Merry Christmas to the musicians of Muzak and men whose shoes don't fit!

Greetings of the season to unemployed actors and the blacklisted everywhere who suffer for sins uncommitted; a holly thorn in the thumb of compilers of lists!

Greetings to wives who can't find their glasses and to poets who can't find their rhymes!

Merry Christmas to the unloved, the misunderstood, the overweight.

Joy to the authors of books whose titles begin with the word "How" (as though they knew!).

Greetings to people with a ringing in their ears; greetings to growers of gourds, to shearers of sheep, and to makers of change in the lonely underground booths!

Merry Christmas to old men asleep in libraries!

Merry Christmas to people who can't stay in the same room with a cat!

We greet, too, the boarders in boarding hoses on 25 December, the duennas in Central Park in fair weather and foul, and young lovers who got nothing in the mail.

Merry Christmas to people who plant trees in city streets; merry Christmas to people who save prairie chickens from extinction!

Greetings of a purely mechanical sort to machines that think--plus a sprig of artificial holly.

Joyous Yule to Cadillac owners whose conduct is unworthy of their car!

Merry Christmas to the defeated, the forgotten, the inept; joy to all dandiprats and bunglers!

We send, most particularly and most hopefully, our greetings and our prayers to soldiers and guardsmen on land and sea and in the air--the young men doing the hardest things at the hardest time of life.

To all such, Merry Christmas, blessings, and good luck!

We greet the Secretaries-designate, the President-elect; Merry Christmas to our new leaders, peace on earth, good will, and good management!

Merry Christmas to couples unhappy in doorways!

Merry Christmas to all who think they are in love but aren't sure!

Greetings to people waiting for trains that will take them in the wrong direction, to people doing up a bundle and the string is too short, to children with sleds and no snow!

We greet ministers who can't think of a moral, gagmen who can't think of a joke.

Greetings, too, to the inhabitants of other planets; see you soon!

And last, we greet all skaters on small natural ponds at the edge of woods toward the end of afternoon. Merry Christmas, skaters! Ring, steel! Grow red, sky! Die down, wind!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good morrow!

E.B. White, 12/20/52

But for the rest of us, "DEAR SATAN" works too: https://vimeo.com/246983302

[dencoyle]

A break from Cmas' hustle...

Minor White's Portland Photos.... http://portlandartmuseum.us/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=1683;type=901

happy trails....

[Michael Mejia]

Today, just as in my childhood, the California air is crisp but without frost, still with anticipation, and quiet. Inside the house it smells of cinnamon and nutmeg and Fir.

Packages spill forth out of everyones room; no one dares peek; a door ajar, a rug covered in ribbons, gaily colored paper, scissors and tape and loot, is quickly closed.

Tomorrow there will be a maelstrom of torn wrappings, boxes and noises of glee, eggnog and ribbon candies and banana bread, our home redolent with Roast Beef and glasses full of Old Vine Zinfandel.

But today, today is Christmas Eve.

[Eric Rose]

Merry Christmas Mike. What you do is hard work and I for one appreciate it. Here's hoping you find some of that Mennonite happiness in the new year.

[Joe]

Merry Christmas, Mike! The photo of your house brings back memories of Muncy, the little Pennsylvania town I grew up in. Cozy and inviting.

[Richard Ripley]

Merry Christmas Mike...
and a very Happy New Year!!

[Trecento]

Merry Christmas Mike!
I've enjoyed your writing for years, and I hope to for years to come. Blessings to you, your family and friends. Best wishes for a happy New Year!

[Robert]

Merry Christmas! Thanks for another year of photographic inspection and introspection.

[cdembrey]

The best photo I've seen so far in 2017 https://i2.wp.com/erickimphotography.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/834E657E-B4C1-47FD-8FF5-77644B02F5ED.jpeg

I'm always looking for a photo that shows me something I havn't seen before.