Merry Christmas!

Now, I promised you one of my more 'special' Christmas shots, and I do believe that this one qualifies! As I mentioned in my previous post, Christmas is, besides a time of joy, also the time of year, when we forget everything about style, design and colour coordination and instead fill our homes with all sorts of weird and, yes, special stuff. This tendency is also part of what I find to be the essense of Christmas, and therefore I will, on this 24th of December, try to give reason for a smile or two by sharing Rudolf with you.

The shot is from Tivoli, a Danish amusement park in Copenhagen, which every December is filled with lights, decorations and all kinds of Christmassy things like, for instance, the display above with Rudolf dragging Santa's sleigh.

And on that cheerful note, I wish you all a very merry Christmas, and may all your wishes come true

Christmas time

Earlier this month - on the first day of Christmas - I promised you a more 'Christmassy' shot. Since then, I have been carrying my camera with me, annoying people around me by suddenly stopping in the middle of my path to immortalise some odd motive. This has resulted in a number of pictures, some beautiful - and some simply quite special.

The one I want to share with you today is, in my opinion, of the former kind. To me it captures some of the spirit of Christmas, as this is, as we say in Danish 'hjerternes fest' (roughly translates into 'celebration of hearts').

Christmas is about family, joy, love and peace - and about cosyness, decorations and lights to light up the darkness during this first of the winter months. Therefore, the macro shot of this tiny Christmas heart, captured at a moment when the sun shone in the window, is among my favourite frames taken during the last couple of weeks.

However, Christmas is also about weird stuff . About filling your house with all sorts of crazy elfs, reindeer and santa figures, which you would, at any other time of the year, look at with dismay and ban from your home immediately. But during December, these lovely, though strange, creatures find their way into our homes and our hearts. But that is a whole other story, for which I have one of the more 'special' shots in store for you some time during the next couple of days.

Making your impression

While sorting through my photos, I came across this one. Though the beach in Denmark is generally most inviting during the summer, it actually makes for quite nice times during the rest of the year as well. I grew up near a beach - this particular beach actually - and have always loved going there during winter, when the rest of the population prefer a bunch of other locations - mainly warmer ones.

As I recall, the picture in this post is taken during one of these walks in December a couple of years back. While staying indoor is indeed quite cosy and generally much warmer at that time of year, the light outside, when the sun graces us with a cold and clear day, invites you to take a stroll, stretch your legs, and work off some of all that lovely Christmas food.

In the town where I grew up, the beach is ideal for this. While in summer it is usually packed with sunbathing people, doing their best to get an even tan, no matter how troublesome that actually is, in the winter you can have it almost to yourself. Only a few dog-walkers, the occational bird-watcher and a handful of other people, who have got the same idea as yourself, will be walking along the sandy coast or chasing the waves as they hit the shore.

The general scarcity of people occupying the area also means that the wildlife is able to have a ball - at long last they get their domain to themselves. That is why, when I, on that December day, was walking along the beach, the sand was filled with tiny three-toed footprints and only a few of the larger, human marks.

Time of joy

As the date today reads December 1st, I actually wanted to spread som Christmas spirit and joy by posting a picture fitting for the season. What I found, ruffling through my desktop, was, however, that I am not quite satisfied with my Christmas pictures - so I have set myself a challenge this December: capture the essense of Christmas in a single frame.

How this ends up, I will share with you later this month, however, for now I will leave you with something I find to be my comfort and joy during the cold, dark months here in Denmark: the warmth, tranquility and relaxation brought by the light of a single candle. Enjoy!