Christmas Trains

I was reading about some different photo techniques for some Christmas pictures. I saw a couple articles about using a shallow depth of field to throw the background out of focus. Specifically a background of lights, even more specifically - Christmas lights.

So, I had a technique, but I needed something for the foreground. Something appropriate for the holiday season.  It didn't take me very long to get some ideas. There's not much more appropriate than model trains to create a nostalgic atmosphere.  My father worked for railroads all his life, so we grew up with real and model railroads. I've had model railroad engines and cars as long as I can remember.

I grabbed some of the pieces in my collection and headed for the living room, where the tree was available as a backdrop.

I started with a Western Maryland Railroad steam engine.  I like this picture so much that I've made it my desktop on my home computer.  A model steam engine with blurred Christmas lights - I am really happy with this foray into a new skill. Particularly since my father retired from the Western Maryland at the end of his career, this is a special photo for me.

I also got a picture with the coal tender.

From there I moved onto something a little more modern from the Baltimore and Ohio line. My father didn't work for the B&O, but is was part of the Chessie System that also included the Western Maryland.  This is a classic look from a lot of old movies.

And with a second diesel engine attached.

These are all HO gauge, but I do have 2 O gauge (the size of Lionel trains) that were gifts from my mother after my father retired. The two O gauge cars are from the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway (M&St.L) and the Great Northern. These were both railroads where my father had worked.

Well, I grabbed the Great Northern boxcar and tried the new technique on a larger (and brighter) subject.

I guess I need a larger tree for the backdrop - but it still is a neat picture to me.

Last summer, Gloria and I found a Lionel set of Chessie System equipment in an antique shop. I tried it out last summer (with Gloria's permission) but I couldn't get it to work.  So I didn't know if it would run, and I had promised not to get into it until Christmas, so I didn't know if it worked, and wouldn't know until Christmas.

I did some research online about what might be the problem and possible solutions.  Christmas came and I had to wait until the middle of the afternoon to be able to play with my train set.  At first it didn't work. I tried a couple possible fixes, but it still wasn't working.  I was running out of options, but still had a couple more things to try.  I was finally able to get it running and had to get pictures. But pictures wouldn't capture enough, I had to get a video of the train moving.

Be sure to watch this to the end (it's only 49 seconds) to see the blooper reel at the end. In the blooper you can even see the engine making smoke. (Don't worry, it's the smoke that the train is supposed to make - there must still be some residual of the smoke mix in the smokestack.) 

So the Christmas trains have had a very eventful holiday season.

Father Christmas

Santa, Father Christmas, Pere Noel, Saint Nicholas...

I've had an affinity for Fr. Christmas for a very long time.  One of the first things that Gloria ever did was when I asked her to help me make  a costume along the lines of Fr. Christmas.  I was in a historical group and was making a holiday outfit that also works very well as a Fr. Christmas costume.  I'm 6'4" tall and I was making a floor length red velvet gown with huge sleeves and fur trim. I needed help with the hem since I could not mark and pin it while I was wearing it. So I asked for her help and she pinned the hem for me on one of the first times we spent some time together.

I still have it and try to find opportunities to wear it - but there are not a lot of social events where a man can wear a red velvet gown.  I did use it for pictures with the furbabies last year.

It's even more impressive when I'm standing up and I'm not in front of a red background - but you can get the idea.

Now onto the collection that comes out for Christmas.

The heart of the collection is displayed on the piano.

They range from rustic woodland santas to velvet and satin formal Fr. Christmases which I sure the original Bishop Nicholas would never have recognized. If you look closely, there are even two bagpipe playing santas on the left.  My Mother used to love Santas as well and many of these are presents from her, and some of them were hers.

But the santas don't end at the piano, they are taking over the house.

The sleigh is nice and I like the action of the reindeer taking off. The other Santa is actually a set of Russian nesting Santas.

Meanwhile on the wine bar, a couple of European feeling santas are  hanging out.

They just feel so "right" on the wine bar in a Tuscan themed kitchen.  And of course there needs to be a train - that one's a cookie jar. And the fuzzy santa in the middle is a wine bottle gift wrap canister.

I went looking for a better picture of my suit and here's one showing a bit more detail. It was at our office party 2 years ago.

O Christmas Tree(s)

Peeking in the living room window from the yard, you can see that the outside has come inside and a tree is in residence.

The tree has been set up and smell of real pine is escaping from the living room. We traditionally go out the first Friday of December to get the tree, then set it up and decorate it the next day.  We try to make a party of it, but this year it was just Gloria and me doing the decorating.  Gloria sits on the couch unwrapping the ornaments (most of them still in their original boxes) and everyone else (me) puts them on the tree.

Before any ornaments, I weave in the lights.  I put on a lot of lights, and weave them in and out from the trunk to the outer branches. This give a great depth to the tree and the lights. It's a trick I learned from my brother when we were still decorating our Mother's tree. The angel on top is another family tradition we've had for more years than I can remember, but the lights still work and she still graces the top of our tree every year.

We always start with two special ornaments, they were bought in the hospital when Jacob was born and they are always the first two to go on the tree; even now - 29 years later. After those two, it's full steam ahead.  We do have a few predominate themes; Santas, dogs, and trains. There are plenty of other ornaments as well, but those are the three most common.

We have been building our collection of ornament since our honeymoon.  While we were on our honeymoon we found a Christmas shop and bought a particularly pretty ornament. Since then we try to each get a special ornament every year.

We also got two ornaments each year for Jacob.  A couple years ago, when he had moved out of the house, we gave him 1/2 of his special ornaments (except for the ones from the hospital) so that he would have a starter collections for his tree.

We have also gotten ornaments to remember the international students and families we have hosted over the years. When we hang their ornaments on the tree we can remember the blessings of friends who are not with us this year.

We ended up with a smaller tree then usual this year so we had to pick and choose what to use, but every one has a memory associated with it.

And just for fun, we have started putting up a small tree in the family room. This is the second year, but it carries the decorations into the room where we actually spend most of our time.

On the wall behind it are pictures of all our fur-babies; adopted and fostered.

Santa's village

Santa and Mrs. Clause have been busy getting ready for a special season of blessings and joy.  Instead of trying to post too many pictures, or writing a post that goes on forever, I'm visiting around the house in several posts.  Today We'll take a stroll through the Christmas Village.

The village has been a work in progress for many years. It is one of Gloria's annual efforts. She has been picking out new pieces for literally decades as we find special buildings or characters or elements that she likes.  It has found a home on 2 tables 4'x2' and the bar for the highlands (there should be a joke in there somewhere, but it won't show up until after I have hit 'publish.')

The village shows a lot of our own interests, two churches, a coffee shoppe, a pet salon, toy shop, 2 dog walkers, several inns, but only two houses, and as you can see - a train right up in front of the whole scene.

The highlands (on the bar) also hosts a lighthouse, but I'm not sure why.  There really isn't a nautical theme anywhere else. I guess it's from living in Maryland right next to the Chesapeake Bay and going over to the Eastern Shore regularly to see Gloria's family.  The highlands also are home to the school and the residential neighborhood.

Down in the commercial district is the heart of the village.

There are a couple of frozen ponds in the park in the foreground and in the center of the village is the church. There are plenty of people (and dogs) out enjoying the fresh snowfall and getting ready for Christmas eve.

And we can't forget the kids.

Santa's Workbench Toy Shoppe is right next door to the Posh Pets Salon (with one of the dog walkers right outside the pet salon.) So we're ready for the two legged and the four legged kids.

There's a lot more going on from the tree lot to the inns, but this is just one stroll through the village.

Preparing the Feast

Yesterday (Halloween) was Gloria's birthday, so it was time for a birthday celebration.  We usually stay home to answer the door for trick or treaters so I get to have fun in the kitchen and pull out all the stops for a birthday dinner.  This year we also have her Mom living with us so it was a formal dinner for three.

Soup

Roasted Butternut Squash Soup

Entree

Crown Rack of Lamb

Warm Mustard Sauce

Parsleyed Red Potatoes

Sauteed Vegetables Provencal

Dinner Rolls

Far Eastern Shore Autumn Swan

Dessert

Smith Island Coconut Cake 

Before I got busy in the kitchen, I needed to set the table. The presentation is important, and it gives us a chance to use the good china and crystal that we usually keep in the china cabinet behind glass doors.  We like to actually use it (once in awhile) to be able to enjoy eating off of it instead of just looking at it. When Mom saw the table set she asked "is someone coming over?" I said no, it's just the three of us. I guess she's not used to making a special meal just for the special people we live with.  But I figure, the people we choose to share our lives with are the ones most deserving of a special effort. 

Table for Three

Had to be sure we had all the flatware, china, and crystal that we would need in place.

Also had to be sure there was space for the serving dishes and the carving set was sharpened and serving utensils in place.  Can't overlook any details that would distract from the experience.

I set the table early in the afternoon to have time to get into the kitchen and still have dinner ready by 6:00. I wanted to eat a little early because we expected the trick or treaters to start coming by after about 6:30. In years past I've done dinner later, but it was interrupted repeatedly so I went for an earlier service where we could enjoy the dinner.

Before we started eating I told Mom what each of the different pieces of silverware were for so she knew which one to use for each course.  She's never eaten such a formal dinner before and I was hoping she would enjoy the experience since it was just family and she didn't have to go out to a fancy restaurant, but she could still have a fancy dinner.

I also went out and cut the last of the daisies that looked presentable for a formal dinner.

Most of the daisies have withered now that we've had a couple of cool nights, but there were enough left to decorate Gloria's dinner table.

After a couple more hours in the kitchen, it was time for dinner.

The lamb is ready, the soup is hot, and the wine is open.

I surrounded the lamb on one side with the potatoes and on the other with the vegetables. The potatoes were made with parsley fresh from our garden.

The vegetables were a mix of red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, yellow squash, and onions sauteed in butter and olive oil.

We were lucky and there were no interruptions until after we finished eating dinner, dessert waited until later (we were all full.)

It was just the right size for three and coconut cake is one of Gloria's favorites. Tonight, Jacob and Amanda are coming over and we're having home made pizzas.  We'll keep the celebration going, but more casual tonight.

Mid-October Panorama and Garden Bloom Day

I was able to get ouside to take some pictures earlier this week, but haven't been able to write up a post yet.  I's mid October so I went out to get pictures for the panorama.  Since the most "popping" elements were the Montauk Dasies I was glad to be able to get some pictures in diffuse light.  I've been reading several books on photography lately and playing with my camera settings.  For these daisies a diffuse light is best because the strong white blossoms will not be washed out bu direct sunlight.  These daisies are all over the hill from end to end, and even out in the front yard under the weeping cherry tree.

The Montauk Daisies are the white blossoms that have taken over the hill. I got some pictures to have for the Garden Bloom Day over at May Dream Garden.

I've been waiting all summer for these to bloom. I couldn't remember what they were and all summer these bushes have been adding a nice deep green foliage, but I've been waiting to see them in bloom.

Now that I've seen them I've been able to identify them (thanks to help from a Facebook group called Plant Identification.) It's a great group for getting help identifying what a plant is - just join the group then post a picture of two of what you have and you'll get suggestions about what it is.  Several people made suggestions and I looked them up and agree that these are indeed Montauk Daisies.

I was able to print out the panorama pictures from this summer and Gloria and I were able to look at them side by side.  We noticed a couple of things. An interesting observation (by Gloria) was in the growth of the holly trees we have outside the fence in the holly grove. We had these planted there to grow into a natural barrier to block views into the yard from the street.  Here are the pictures from April and from October showing this summer's growth.

April 2014

October 2014

And here is a picture from when they were planted in April 2011,

April 2011

They've come a long way, and so has the yard and the gardener.

And just because I really like this picture, I'm going to post it one more time.  I sent this to the channel 9 meteorologist, Topper Shutt, and he used it on the air and gave it an "A+." Then he tweeted it out.

Lunar Eclipse - Blood Moon on "Wordless Wednesday"

Shooting the Moon

I've been taking some time lately to practice taking pictures of the moon. I've been reading up on the settings for a camera, and reading the manual for my camera  (I know - SACRILEGE - a man reading the instructions - oh well.)  I started last month when we had the harvest super-moon and I wanted to get some pictures.  I had actually tried for the super-moon before that - but all I got were white circles against a black background.

So, for August I did some research and was able to get some detail in the shots.

Not too bad for my first attempt to do more than just set the camera on automatic and hope for a good shot. I've started manually setting the speed and aperture.

I was able to get out again last week to try a crescent moon. It required different setting because there was a lot less light being reflected.

With the terminator line (where the light ends) it's easier to see more details because of the longer shadows (it's sunrise along that line and the shadows are at their maximum.) These were taken after dark so there is very little color to capture, just the white light of the sun reflected off the moon's surface. These were taken from a tripod so that it would be more stable than me trying to hold the camera. I was also using a 2 second delay to let me push the button and let go so that the camera could be still when the picture was actually taken.

Earlier this week I went out before twilight to get some more pictures of the half moon in a light sky. I had problems because the light sky did not allow the crispness of detail I wanted on the moon's surface.  I ended up using a small aperture to darken the background and sharpen the moon's surface details. Also taken from a tripod with a 2 second delay.

I was able to get details, again with the most right at the terminator line, but I also got more color than the shots after it was dark.  I'm still experimenting with the exposure time and aperture setting, but I'm trying to keep track of what I'm doing so that I can understand the differences in the results. I'm also paying more attention to the image properties before I do any post processing, just trying to learn how the settings create the final image. I'm also getting past the need to take 20 shots to get 2 good ones.

Montauk Daisies

It's getting near the end of the year for the garden and we've seen an outburst of flowers. They are Montauk Dasies and there are groupings of the on the left, the center, and the far right on the back hill.  They are the white flowering bushes in the panorama below.

A more detailed look at one grouping looks like this:

These are from the grouping on the far left in the panorama. The former owners must have really liked these because there are more than 10 bushes of these on the back hill.  When they show up, they show up in force.  They give a nice pop of white late in the season and they should be blooming until the first frost - hopefully not too soon.

I read that they also attract bees and butterflies - THEY DO.  The following pictures were taken within  30 minutes a couple of days ago.

It was late afternoon and the sun was going down, so I was able to get some shots where the wings were back-light (backlit?) had back-light. I have not researched this specific butterfly, but the split wings are interesting. It's not one big wing like a swallowtail or a monarch. The second and third pictures almost make it look like a jet fighter wing configuration.

I was also trying some different camera settings to try and darken the background to minimize distractions. I was happy with these shots and will continue practicing my photography skills. Particularly since we are getting to the end of the gardening seasons.