A Christmas with Good Friends

This is my first Christmas alone in 27 years .... waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

Just kidding. About the crying anyway ....

The boys were scheduled to go to their Aunt's house for Christmas Eve dinner (I ordered a pizza and got the last delivery :-) and to their mother's house for Christmas Day dinner. I was contemplating a movie and popcorn ... not being one to go to a bar and get hammered.

But then my good friends Sue and Don invited me to their house in the town of Morrisburg for Christmas dinner and I was so pleased to accept. I arrived a bit late as I had slept through my alarm. Sue's mother was already there and Sue was cooking up a storm. A wonderful British meal of Yorkshire pudding, roast beef, roasted potatoes, yams, turnips and carrots, and Christmas Pudding. Awesome ...

While all that was happening, Don offered me a taste of the new Chocolate Egg Nog ... I had seen it in stores but thought it a bit of a gimmick. Well. was I ever wrong :-) ... the 'Nog became my new friend with the addition of some smooth Lamb's dark rum ... wow.

Don gave me a tour of the house, which they have renovated themselves over the last 8 years or so ... a lovely job. I was pretty impressed ... it gives me hope for mine to look good again one day.

After a while, we sat down for dinner and it was all superb. We topped that later on with the Christmas pudding, a dark and rich fruit cake smothered in a really nice custard that Don made while we chatted. Before it was served, Don poured Brandy on the pudding and lit it up ... very cool.

It was, of course, really delicious. A great Christmas meal on a blustery day.

After chatting for a while, we went outside for a walk. And I took my D700 with me. The 70-300VR remained mounted from the day before and that was fine with me. The weather was enough to sap your energy a bit, but I had cleverly wore my new super ninja long johns and they did the trick.

We walked the block or so to the St. Lawrence river and started moving west, with the strong east wind at our backs. It had cut through us pretty going to the river, and it was nice to have it behind us for a while. As we approached the docks, I shot through a nice looking tree to get a sense of the shore line ...


The camera remained set for minimum shutter of 1/500s from the day befor ein the woods, so the ISO on this grey day ended up being 2200 already. Wow. And that's with the lens wide open. The docks are next to a pavilion that is heavily used during summer. No one in there today :-)


I notice that the shore line has this tiny version of crashing waves that roll in from the strong winds every 10 or 20 seconds. This looks cool, although it is tiny compared to anything on the ocean ...


The docks are pretty large ... and as you step out onto the pier, you see three benches facing west ... not doubt a fabulous spot to sit and watch sunsets.


And looking from this very spot to the end of the left-hand dock, you can see that I processed it a bit brighter with some foggy glow ... it just seemed too depressing otherwise ...


These benches carry plaques in memorium ... a tribute to the caring nature of the town's inhabitants. They are apparently quite history conscience ...

I then pointed the lens at Don as he and Sue were chatting away further out on the dock.


He and Sue were laughing over something and I caught a nice candid of her as well.


I asked if they would like a Christmas day portrait and while they were getting set up on a bench, I snapped an image of the snow blowing off the end of the dock. Hard to see, but it is there ...


And then I shot some portraits of them together. The best image by far (most natural chemistry) was the first.


They look great together, don't they?

We walked back to the house, fighting the wind all the way, and settled down for some Christmas Cake. Sue and her mother made this and it is one serious cake. Wow. The icing is half an inch thick in two layers ... I always forget the outside layer's name, but the inner layer is marzipan.



To shoot the cake, I had put the Tamron 28-75 on the camera and shot at f/2.8 ... this allowed some nice shutter speeds at 6400 ISO ... not super fast, but fast enough to hand hold without stabilization ...

While eating the cake, we had a fun visit from a friend of theirs, Lena. She popped in and brought a nice CD of her daughter singing and exchanged a few fun stories before she had to leave. The three of us sat around for a while longer, and I took some images of two of their cats. Freya is a black long-haired cat who is simply beautiful to look at. This image is shot at 6400 ISO, as the lighting in the house is rather subdued and comfortable.


I did a second version of that image because I noticed that I left the shadows unrealistically light, which allows too much noise to peek through ...


Ting is a New York cat that is playful and yet will grab you and claw you at random if you put hands on the wrong place. I stroked Ting's head and back a couple of times, and she definitely feinted at me :-)



My final image of the evening was one of Sue playing with Freya. I went black and white because it allowed me to open the tones more easily ...


And then it was time to leave ... a lovely day in the company of friends.