Christmas – Decaseconds

Six (Christmas?) Trees Above Berkeley

2019-Sep-13 adohertyhLeave a comment

Two of my past St. Lawrence University students are working on their Ph.D.s at Berkeley and I discovered yesterday that one was giving her Graduate Research Conference (Berkeley’s version of a thesis defense, but earlier) while the other was in the audience. I’m very proud of both of them.
Understandably, this had me thinking about my experiences at Berkeley. In this picture from Grizzly Peak, the perspective folds together Oakland, San Francisco, and Berkeley. In the foreground, look at those gnarled trees—they’re weird but they’ve grown tall. I’ll take that visual metaphor for the grad school experience. I took this picture on Christmas Day in 2016, so I guess that makes these Christmas trees, too.

Buoy Asymmetry

2019-Jan-07 adohertyhLeave a comment

This quiet winter evening (Christmas day, as it turns out) presented a delicate mirroring between sky and earth, broken by the presence of a single buoy.

Christmas In Salisbury, Connecticut

2018-Dec-242018-Dec-25 adohertyhLeave a comment

Christmas in the Berkshires brings a whole lot of classic, rustic sights.

The Christmas tree is glowing inside, where it’s warm.

Outside, wind tosses snow from the branches.

Blue Lit

2018-Jan-23 emceehammr1 Comment

Wonder

2018-Jan-18 emceehammrLeave a comment

Bitter Cold

2018-Jan-16 emceehammrLeave a comment

Bundled Up

2018-Jan-04 emceehammrLeave a comment

Grizzly Christmas

2016-Dec-28 adohertyhLeave a comment

Christmas, back in the Bay Area! Up on Berkeley’s Grizzly Peak, alongside the tuners and drinkers and stoners, the clouds rolled over the hills and the whole bowl of the Bay lit up. This is a weird and special place.

Lighted Path

2016-Dec-202016-Dec-20 emceehammrLeave a comment

Getting into the Christmas spirit with some pictures from Longwood Gardens’ Christmas display! I always enjoy the holiday display, and photographing the lights was a lot of fun, getting the contrast between the motion of people in the center of the path with the stationary folks on the sides.

Hearst (MMB) Holidays

2016-Dec-05 adohertyhLeave a comment

Following Thanksgiving, all structures seems to sprout these luminescent, multicolored silica-and-copper growths. I’m sure the world’s building biologists are hard at work on a cure for “Christmas lights”, but in the mean time, they sure are pretty.

Longwood Christmas

2016-Jan-052016-Jan-05 emceehammrLeave a comment

I can’t wait until next Christmas!

Saturnalia Sunset

2014-Dec-26 adohertyhLeave a comment

One of my favorite times (of the entire year) for photography is after Christmas dinner. Life is slow and sedate, and it matched the placid(ish) rolls of the Gulf of Mexico perfectly. Even the shapes of people are soft and indistinct—an impressionist’s idea of a family playing in the waves. Spending the holidays in Florida has a certain appeal.

Decorate the Tree

2012-Dec-242012-Dec-24 adohertyhLeave a comment

Christmas time is here again, and Decaseconds is over a year old now. Looking back on the Christmas tree from a year ago, this year’s is off to a good start. The Charlie Brown Christmas Special Soundtrack was playing, the lights were turned down low, and we had just gotten the first strings of lights on the tree when I snapped this shot.

After Christmas

2012-Jun-292013-Jun-12 adohertyhLeave a comment

One of my earliest posts displayed the surreal beauty of Christmastime in the frigid suburbs of Chicago; given that much of the country is experiencing the balmy joy of summer, I thought a wee reminder of chillier times might be appropriate. (This photograph also continues what has apparently become a series, “Trees Next to Buildings.”)

Christmas Purple

2011-Dec-312014-May-12 adohertyh1 Comment

Though the suburbs can be an ugly place, at times, there’s no time when they become more attractive than the Holiday season. I was particularly fascinated by the way the individual red, blue, green, and yellow lights in the front porch of this house blended together to dye the whole scene violet. It speaks to the spectroscopic subtleties of Christmas lights that a similar display in the adjacent house produces very different results.