Morning magic

A good friend called last night, and challenged me to come with him for a morning session of photography today. To get up at 06:15 AM in the middle of the Christmas holidays is a bit of a challenge all by itself, but once we got started the rest came quite naturally.
It was pretty cool in more than one way, and on one occasion I nearly got my nose stuck to the metal on the vertical part of the L-bracket. From then on I used my left eye with the viewfinder. :)
The sun had a couple of hills to overcome before spilling its rays around us. The above shot was taken at 09:40, and was one of the last I got before we turned back for family duties.
Lovely to be Out There and make some pictures again.

Busy days

Apologies. Two weeks passed between the two previous posts.
This hiatus match my photographic activities; there's lots to do on other fronts. One night I dreamt I heard an echo of a "ho, ho, ho" down the chimney, despite the fact that Santa has very different manners here in Norway...
There are lots of customs and traditions to hone these days. A particular one in our family is to write extensive Christmas letters and distribute to friends and family; instead of those typical seasons greetings cards with a single photo of the kids forced to pose for the occasion.
Instead, we fill the letters with photos from the past year. The process of selecting images is equal to an Annual Image Archive Clean-out, which is an experience both amusing and frustrating. Every year I swear to myself to document more, to be more agile with the camera around the kids and at family gatherings, and improve my photos to convey the spirit of the moments. Every year I realise I have failed.
On the other hand, every year I find shots of moments I had forgotten. Usually not very good photos, but good enough to survive the first screening at upload to the computer. Usually I'm quite conservative in keeping all the so-so material produced, which inflates my need for disk space substantially, but I would hate myself for discarding good memory-joggers. So, in a way, every year I also realise that I've had some success.
Maybe it's just that yin-yang thing, I dunno.

Cross-country

Last week-end came the first good skiing opportunity this season. At least if sticking to the prepared tracks. Lots of people out, lots of smiling faces.
Outside the prepared tracks, the forest was completely quiet. The snow on the branches muted all sounds. The snow on the ground was shallow enough to allow normal walking, but thick enough to hide all tracks and old footprints. To be the first down a path was like stepping onto virgin land.
Though very few people saw it, there was a broad smile on my face too. All day.