Part of Christmas is putting everything away. I’ll admit, we are doing that a bit early this year, before the end of the Christmas season on the Church calendar. This year, our packing up is a bit more involved. We will be moving this coming year, so we are sorting though everything, and deciding what to keep, what to get rid of, and what is going into storage. Since we are moving from the US to England, all our lights are going into storage. That’s easy. Harder is sorting through the decorations. Or at least I thought it would be hard. It turns out my kids thought it was fun. Also, I drug out my camera to take some photos, and that is always fun. Here is an ornament that will be coming with us:
To shoot this photo, I used a magnifying, close-up lens on my 50mm lens. I lined Santa up so that the light would be smooth and luminous behind him. Here is the original photo:
I cropped the photo and applied a vintage filter in Aperture:
I liked the vintage feel, but thought it was too strong. So to get the final version I started this post with, I opened the image in Photoshop and then duplicated it. One layer I made into a black and white version, that was the top layer. Then I dropped the opacity of that layer to about 50%. I then made a mask on that layer and masked in the santa figure. The result was the more toned down vintage feel in the background. That, to me, is more appealing. What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment below.
A version of this image is available on Picfair.
Happy New Year to all my readers and visitors. This year will be a busy one in my household as we relocate. It is a cycle that we are use to, we move every few years for work reasons. To me, it often seems like a circle, we move, get set-up, get situated, get ready to move again. In a way this cycle feels like the smaller yearly cycle of celebrating Christmas.
Cheers!
Wishing you all the very best in your preparations. Happy New Year!
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Thanks, it’s going to be quite a year I am sure! Happy New Year to you as well.
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Oh wow – best wishes on your move! I do like your toned down vintage version the most – it matched the classic ornament – there was almost a German feel to this Santa – and is it glass?
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Thanks! This particular Santa is metal.
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Ahhh
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And my favorite ornaments are these wood carved ones someone gave us more than ten years ago – but we keep getting rid of more and more stuff – just Because we want to
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Yeah I hear you.
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😏
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Interesting photo processing, Amy! Thanks for the tips on processing. And best of luck on your move to the UK! That sounds marvelous. How long will you be there?
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Thanks, and we should be there for about three years.
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A lovely Santa ornament. I do prefer the first image in your post — you nailed the vintage feel and it suits the subject so well.
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Thanks!
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Happy New Year! I pray that this move is a smoother transition than ever before.
I like what you achieved with your Santa.
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Thank you for your kind words, and Happy New Year to you as well.
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Your blog is amazing, i really love it! Happy New Year 🙂
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Thanks for your kind words, Happy New Year to you as well!
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You’ve got a really creative mind mate *thumbs up*
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Thanks!
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I really like your edit. You are moving to England?!? Why?
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Thanks, and we tend to move every few years for work, I’m excited about it.
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