EMPS: What I Did Over the Holidays

Yay! Carly's back with the EMPS!

Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #106: Whatcha Been Up To?

Welcome Back folks! It's been a while since we last shared our photography with each other, so let's get acquainted again... shall we? It's an easy assignment for our first one of 2011! Simply show me what you have been up to, in terms of your photography, since we last shared an assignment last September.

Extra Credit: Show us the one picture you felt you could have done better with.

Frankly, I haven't been getting out that much with my camera, except for the The Round Robin Photo Challenges photo shoots. Yes, I take the occasional picture of Tucson weather or the dogs, but generally, if I didn;t post something here, then it probably wasn't worth posting.

One exception, and apologies in advance for being such a one-trick pony: I've continued to try to document the going-on at St. Michael's, not all of which have made it into the RRPC, the WA or even the St. Michael's blogs and web site. For example, the Thursday morning before Christmas, I did my best to photograph the annual ritual known as the "greening of the church." Here are the best of those photos:



I still can't get very clear photos in the church because of the light issue, but I like this particular shot for all the activity in it.



In case you haven't guessed, the Greening of the Church is when the Altar Guild volunteers put up the decorations in preparation for the Christmas Eve masses. The main decorations are lots of artificial evergreens...



...and lots and lots of live poinsettia plants.



And here, by request, is one of the less successful shots. If I'd taken the time to get the tripod out of the car, I might have managed to get a good photo out of this.

The Greening was far from the only church event I've photographed lately, but I've already shown you photos from many of them for the RRPC. One thing I haven't posted yet is the result of my photographing what we jokingly call the "10 PM Midnight Mass." This consists of the Lessons and Carols at 10 PM, followed by the High Mass, which carries on past midnight. I almost always end up carrying a torch or crucifix at this Mass, and therefore tend not to get many photos during the services themselves. This year, however, I got to sit down in a pew for once. Problem was, I was still so caught up in working on my brother's Christmas present that I dashed off to church without my purse and therefore without my camera. I rushed home and grabbed both, returning about 10:10 PM. Here, to avoid overloading this blog entry too badly, are just two photos from that night:



Proscovia and another acolyte light the candles on the altar. The crèche scene is a handmade one, which the children at the 5 PM Christmas Eve Family Mass help to set up in front of the altar each year.



Music is always a big part of the main Christmas Eve service. My friend Kevin is in the choir now, albeit not visible in this photo. This year the service music was the Christmas Mass In C (Coronation Mass) by Mozart.

Be sure to check with Carly's blog Ellipsis each week for the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot. Welcome back, Carly!

Karen