A great photographer I met once, and listened to often, Scott Bourne once said to explore the world creatively you need to see the world from the mind of a five year old. Well I've been doing that with my now six year old. Today I reviewed photos he took over the last four months on my old Canon P&S. My wife mentioned several times he imitates me when he shoots...he was actually doing quite well! He does video much better than I do! Well in his photos I did see the sense of wonder I often miss as I get older.

So tonight I set the tripod up and looked at the tree from the level of my two year old. I just fell into the wonderful world of bliss. I saw the lights, the shiny ornaments, the dark spots, the smiles on faces, the tassels and beads. It was fun. It was like my first memories of Christmas growing up...and when I made up the HDR images I just had to capture the feeling of the moment of when I can remember looking at my family Christmas tree a the age of four or five at Fort Devens, Massachusetts in 1974 or 75.

Then I thought about the most important part of the evening...the arrival of Jesus. A hundred thoughts started running through my mind. I can see so much of the story rushing together, and my mind is just too slow to understand or explain it right now. I turned my lens on the family nativity scene, and turned of the lights. I felt a peace come over me as I worked the light and tried a few different angles. I began to reflect, that on a night like tonight I don't think Jesus wants us to think too deeply. He wants us to look at his arrival like a child who can feel something special in the air, and now that in the darkness of the night a child was born who gives peace to our souls if we but choose to listen for the sound of his voice.

-ehw

P.S. Fujifilm X-E1. These are HDR processed in HDR Efex Pro 2..the second one got a touch up in Perfect Suite 8.