It all started on a rainy winter day. Matt and I had been brainstorming all week what our Christmas photo should be. The guiding structure was that it had to be about the very heart of Christmas, Jesus. It had to grasp the importance of Him, The King, coming into this world as a baby and growing into a man with the sole purpose of dieing to save me, to save you.
Matt came up with a great idea! There is a Claes Oldedburg sculpture three blocks from out apartment that is a huge stamp. Hang in there a moment. Claes Oldenburg takes items like a spoon, paper clip, in this case a stamp (the ink kind) and blows them up. I mean really blows them up. Here take a look.
So Matt's idea was to photograph ourselves sitting on the letters of the Free stamp. Why the Free Stamp? Because we have been set Free by the blood of Jesus Christ. It was perfect!!!
However we had some issues
Rain which means puddles
A photographer that has a lack of understanding when it comes to a self timer- I could only get it to 10 seconds
Picture this- all dressed up, running through the puddles, only 10 seconds AND
I'm too short to get myslef up on the stamp and no muscles to assist
Once again only 10 seconds for Matt to get me onto the wet Free stamp and himself
again... If only you could see that I am hysterically laughing. He didn't quite get me all the way up and I am pinned to the letter F.
Did we get it?? 
How many tries umm......at least 5 runs
Until...
A young man hopped out of his car hysterically laughing at the scene he had been watching for the past 8 minutes. He very politely apologized for watching the entirety of it before he offered his assistance. So here it is!!!!
Problem- umm... can you see us???
This just will not do. Grandma deserves to see our two little faces.
Plan B began to form as we were muddy and dripping wet.
“A light has come into the world”
Curious how to get that almost spooky flashlight effect captured?:
Set up a strong light- we dismantled a standing lamp and based it between pillows- Yes I know it is fire hazard
Position the light onto your faces
Set your camera to manual- yes scary at first
You are going to need a very long exposure-meaning the speed needs to be slower than usual, but not so slow that if you move you get a blurry ghost in the background with you. Ours was set to 1/60th of a second and an aperture of 4.5 try it out ...have some fun
Then turn off the lights
Press the button
Run and jump on your loved ones back
and Smile!!
Once again next year is bound to be even better!!
I LOVE it! That is the best story I've heard in a long time....that stamp is really cool...but yes, your faces are just too lovely to be so far away. :)
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