Tag Archives: December

There’s one in every crowd

My first amaryllis bloom opened this morning. A welcome cheerful note on this gray day.

The stamens and pollen at the center of a red amaryllis.
A cheerful red on a gray day.

I got a group of three amaryllis for holiday cheer. Of course one of them has to be an over-achieving show-off… But in an amaryllis it’s cheerful and charming!

For Sunshine’s Macro Monday (I was sick on Monday) and Cee’s Flower of the Day.

Twelve Months of 2017

December 2017

Explanation:

These are a few pictures I selected to give a sense of how I’ve experienced December. I experimented with noise reduction settings in Adobe Lightroom to try and soften these. In Seattle in winter the light levels are fairly low so pictures often have a grainy texture. This setting can sometimes be used to give an almost painting-like feel to pictures.

More explanation:

I’ve been working on a family calendar for 2018. I started it three times but kept getting interrupted. It takes time to go through the many photos I take most months. I decided to do a push to get the calendar finished: it is something my grandmother and father really like (I use Mixbook, which allows me to add family birthdays which is a useful feature. No doubt other companies do as well. I find it easier to stick with one outfit since I’ve gotten used to the way this one works and the quality is good.)

So I’m using the Twelve days of Christmas to put together one calendar page a day, going backwards from December. As I review photographs taken every month I am hoping to post a gallery for each month. As I do this I’m experimenting with different Lightroom  options and effects.

2017 Favorites