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Friday Slide Show: Old Ornaments
17 December 2021
Every year we have the same discussion at the staff meeting. Around here, you call a staff meeting by twirling around in the office chair three times saying each syllable distinctly. Staff. Meet. Ing.
The action item under discussion was a tree. A Christmas tree. Whether or not to buy one. And if so, whether to buy a real one or an artificial one.
Since we've been having the same discussion for years, you can presume that we've never opted to buy an artificial one. Or we wouldn't still be discussing it.
This year, with the price of real trees jumping higher than, say, a tree, some research was called for. And we did a lot of it. We learned about the different ways artificial trees are made, how some branches and needles are made to look more realistic, how you can program the built-in lights, how easy it is to assemble them.
There was some field research, too. We had a look at those realistic needles and branches (not very real). And the lights (how nice not to have to string lights). And the prices (but you only buy one of these once).
We only tripped three or four times getting the lights up.
And then we stumbled upon the Deal Breaker. We'd have to store the thing for 11 months of the year in a huge box somewhere on the estate.
All of a sudden, taking down the tree and dumping it on the curb in January seemed like a blessing worth the extra $30 this year.
So we got a Noble Fir a bit shorter than usual, wrestled it into the old stand, hauled it up the front steps making a right turn at the front door and carefully nudging alongside the upright piano to prop it up on some bricks so it would seem just as tall as it always did. Then we got out our old colored incandescent lights. We only tripped three or four times getting the lights up.
The lady of the house then began the ornamentation. We chipped in later. After we'd caught our breath.
Same old ornaments we've photographed before. But this year, with no light but the tree light, we thought we'd try something different. Shoot them with the iPhone.
Our antique iPhone 6 Plus with its first generation image stabilization has always done remarkably well in very poor lighting, boosting the exposure without somehow succumbing to hideous noise patterns like our real cameras. These, for example, were captured around 1/4 second at ISO 125 and f2.2.
This year we rediscovered some old ornaments that had been stashed away and forgotten the past couple of years. It was a little like greeting old friends after a pandemic.
So with that as our theme, we invite you to enjoy these old, familiar ornaments hanging on our real tree once again this year.
