Merry Christmas!
This young Sphinx cat joined our family this year. When we asked him to wish everyone the very best for the holidays, he had a lot to say but I only captured this stare. From all of us to you and yours, Merry Christmas! I hope you enjoy time with family and friends doing things that make you smile.
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Christmas sledding in Redwood
I hope you have enjoyed a nice holiday and are able to close out a hard year on a good note. We have had a lot of time with our children which has been great. We had a massive snowstorm just before Christmas and we went out tobogganing as it was building.
Five kids makes for an instant party and we had a blast slipping and sliding around the little hill across the road from our house. We stayed out into the night before going back inside for hot chocolate. I came back out to photograph the falling snow for a while. It was too beautiful to pass up taking the opportunity to capture the wintry landscape in the dark.
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Holiday greetings!
I hope you are enjoying time with those you love these holidays. Warmest wishes to you and yours.
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Christmas day around the house
Kezia and Kian had fun from early Christmas morning when Kezia told her grandparents she just missed Santa Claus. We made it out sledding in the backyard before lunch and then we had family visit in the afternoon.
On Boxing day we had thirty family members come over for dinner – kids and adults all seemed to have a great evening.
I hope everyone is enjoying a lot of family time!
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Merry Christmas!
We are enjoying good family time over the holiday break and hope you are doing the same with those you love. The kids had a chance to meet up with Santa Claus a couple of days before Christmas. They took the opportunity to review their lists with St. Nick and had fun running around the sleigh with the neighbourhood kids while they were waiting.
Kezia’s tricky ways caught the eye of one of the elves and they had a good game of tag while the procession was stopped in front of our house in Redwood Meadows.
Thank you for following my photography through the year. I appreciate your visits and your comments. I wish you a happy holiday and look forward to sharing more images this year – what’s left of it!
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A Christmas moose… or two
My parents and I went out for our fairly annual moose run this morning. The kids give the drive to look for wildlife a pass as they were busy assembling new toys and reading new books. We found two bull moose in a line of aspen along a ridge and watched them walking for a few minutes. They dropped down through the deep snow into a meadow of scrubby willows nearby and set about grazing on the slender branches.
One of the moose had shed its antlers while the other still carried a beautiful rack. Both were big, strong boys and it was great to see them in such good health here in the middle of winter.
Aside from that, it was nice to share an encounter with these wonderful animals with my parents on Christmas morning.
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A Christmas Moose
The cold continues which was great for our family wildlife drive this morning. The moose we saw were scattered over a few different spots in West Bragg Creek. This bull looked up with a small amount of interest and then went back to chewing branches. I’ll take it as a good sign and wanted to share this image of a moose on Christmas Morning along with wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas. I hope you have time to relax with those you love today and over the next few before many of us get wound up again.
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Mele Kalikimaka!
Merry Christmas from our crazy little family. Thank you for all of the season’s greetings that people have sent our way. We hope you have a great time with your family and friends over the holidays. We’re heading down to play in the sand at Perfect Beach (as my children have labelled a small spit of shore near Kapa’a that they love to swim off of) so we will be taking advantage of the warm weather here in Hawaii.
Before we came to Kauai for our family holiday over the Christmas break, I photographed the kids in Redwood Meadows with Santa Claus while he was taking a break from the North Pole. While I was setting up the lights, Bobbi and I snuck in a family shot on the set.
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Amarin and Dave’s Family Christmas Photographs
Just before Christmas I was in West Bragg Creek at Dave and Amarin’s home to photograph their family.
It was pretty cold but we had fun shooting outside under a full moon, clear skies and a few strands of Christmas lights.
A great bunch of people and I appreciate them being game to try a few different scenes while freezing their fingers and toes a little bit. A pretty photogenic bunch too I think.
Thanks to Amarin and Dave for inviting me to join them out at Fawn Hills and “shoot” their family.
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Portraits with Santa Claus
I was invited to photograph the children in my community of Redwood Meadows with Santa Claus on Sunday. He took a little time out of his schedule to sit for portraits at the community hall. We had about fifty children come and Santa was fantastic talking with all of them and sharing in their plans for the holidays. It was hectic and a lot of fun. Certainly makes me appreciate the photographers working where there are hundreds of kids in line!
I started the shoot with my children, Kian and Kezia, to do some quick tests but everyone was anxious to get rolling so it was a bit rushed. Kezia, at just under two years old, was happy to stay cuddled in her mommy’s arms. She had no interest in sitting on Santa’s lap so that photograph will have to wait for next year. Here are two that I did get of Kian.
Here, Zac and Ivy Keyser look quite at home on Santa’s lap. They were ready to share their wish list and listen to Santa’s input.
When it was time to put on the smiles, they were definitely ready.
Mackenzie and Parker brought their dog Morris with them and I love the photographs we made.
When it was time to go, Parker was ready.
Probably the best part of the afternoon was working with my Dad. As I was mucking about with gear, he led the set up of the props and the scene. During the shoot, he worked the main reflector and did a great job. It was really fun working together – thanks Dad! At the end of the portraits, I got a nice shot of my parents together with Santa.
On the gear front, I used my Canon 1D Mark III and stayed with one lens. Sadly, my old workhorse, the Canon 70-200 lens, has lost its trustworthiness badge as back focus crept into a couple of images. This tracks back to a drop I’m guilty of from almost a year ago at Glacier National Park but lately it has become more of a problem. This lens has served me well but it is now at the top of the replacement list. I lit the scene with a single Canon 430 EX flash (6′ off the ground on camera left) bounced off of a large silver umbrella with a 36″ reflector close in at camera right and mixed with ambient. I’m happy to report that my new Pocket Wizard remote flash controllers worked very well and I really enjoyed the ease of use and reliability of the system. Looking forward to leveraging them more in my work.
I had a great time and want to thank the Redwood Meadows community for letting me take portraits of our wonderful children.
Christopher Martin Photography 