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Christmas Photography

Yes, it's time to get creative with festive greenery.

OK. You've got a sprig each of holly and ivy, a camera, a wild imagination and a free afternoon. We're going to explore different ways of presenting them so as to tell different stories and create different moods.

First off, what do you normally associate with holly and ivy? How about these:

Christmas - traditional symbols
Winter - snowy fields
The seasons - incorporating images of a plant for each season
Feeding the birds - berries
Renewal - green leaves in winter
Carols - ' …the holly bears the crown'
Hope - evergreen leaves
So when you think about composing a photograph to illustrate those themes and ideas you're looking to bring out those ideas in a way that conveys the mood, or the effect that you're trying to create.

For instance, for some people their idea of holly and ivy is traditional. It's part of Christmas decorations and it's everywhere - on cards, decorations, the composition satisfies the eye's expectation of a seasonal image.

Maybe it's the idea of continuing life. Holly and ivy, evergreen, grey and treeless countryside and roadways, red berries - they suggest things like renewal and life amid.

And what does Christmas mean to you? Is it a festival that means something to you personally, and do you associate it with family and a coming together, of good food and wine and a haze of goodwill to all people?

Now you've got some ideas about how you want to portray the greenery, think about composition.

Take the traditional display. You could just slap the sprigs on a table and shoot away. But shift them around. Put them to one side of the frame, so that the leaves hold the space in the middle and pull the composition together. Try some fabric or some coloured paper. Silver foil even. You can use anything you like because this is all about experimentation and seeing what works.

Using the rule of thirds, i.e. imagining a grid on the frame which divides the space into nine equal squares, you can position the berries on the upper right third so that the eye is drawn to the berries first because of their vivid colour, and then the eye travels around the rest of the image coming back to rest on the red again.

holly and ivy

HOLLYANDIVY IMAGE - Fig. 1
Details:
Canon EOS 300D
1/60 @ f5.6
Digital ISO 100
18-55mm kit lens @ 55mm
Tumax DSL20Afn Speedlite flash @ 36O

Using this rule of thirds makes the picture aesthetically pleasing to look at because it gives balance. The brain recognises the symmetry of the composition and it makes it pleasing to look at.

You've also got some interesting contrasts in texture - the velvet all ruffled up, and the waxy green of the leaves - soft and sharp, round and angular.

Now let's think about mood. Here's an idea - grouping the holly and the ivy with some baubles to suggest the idea of Christmas and celebration. It can suggest warmth, and cosiness, and warm flickering fires.

holly baubles

HOLLYBAUBLES Fig. 2
Details:
Canon EOS 300D
1/60 @f.4
Digital ISO 100
18-55mm kit lens @38mm
Tumax DSL20Afn Speedlite flash @ 36O

The blurred foreground directs your eye towards the berries in the background and you use your imagination to bring what you think might be in the foreground - it's like being in the middle of a party and suddenly spotting something in the corner of the room. You set a scene. You think of what you want to say with the photograph, and you set it up to bring out those elements that tell the story.

christmas berries

BERRIES - Fig. 3
Details:
Canon EOS 300D
1/50 @f5.6
Digital ISO 100
18-55mm kit lens @55mm
Tumax DSL20Afn Speedlite flash @ 45O

In this last picture I've simply set the ivy against a piece of dark polystyrene to suggest texture and structure and to get some interesting shadows going on. All you get is the berries and the leaf. Simple, angular, and again you're looking at differences in shapes with round berries and sharp leaf and with nothing distracting in the background your eye is directed right at the berries and the leaf.

And now it's your turn. You've got a free afternoon and a camera. Have some fun.



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Christmas Photography