Christmas Reflection

To take the picture above I put my Nikon F80 on a tripod and focussed closely on a reflective Christmas tree bauble. This would have been one of the days following the Christmas of 2011. I set the self-timer and sat back on the nearby sofa trying to look casual about the whole thing. The camera was loaded with Adox CMS 20 ‘microfilm’, which I developed myself in dilute Rodinal. The full frame can be seen here. The ‘fish-eye’ effect caused by the reflection in what was effectively a convex mirror made a small room seem rather larger than it was.

My late wife loved the run-up to Christmas, and was enthusiastic about decorating the house. To me it always just seemed a chore, but there’s pleasure to be had in a loved one’s joy, so I was happy to do the work. The big day itself brought about a reversal: she seemed to find it a chore; whereas, by then, I could draw upon genuine enthusiasm. Since she died, with no one to please but myself, I’ve not bothered putting up a tree or other trimmings. Except for that one year I got a small table-top tree – but the cat waged such a relentless war against it that I ended up putting it away.