My grandmother taught me the joy of sending holiday cards when I was about seven years old. She said making one’s own card was a way to share your creativity and to put a smile on people’s faces. My first card had a live pine twig with a drawn ornament below it. I remember that envelope being a bit thick and uneven. Over the years, I have kept this tradition alive as a way to stay connected to friends, colleagues, and clients from around the world. It is my way of reaching out and thanking people I care about while adding a little fun to the season. Let me show you the behind the scenes of how I created it.
The cover this year was simple and traditional. An ornament passed down from my great grandmother’s family. I worked on lighting and composition to give the ornament an effect of almost floating in space.
The inside imagery is a bit more complex and is composed of four separate and distinct images - three from our trip to Iceland this year. The first image captures Icelandic horses galloping in southern Iceland adjacent to the Seltún hot springs.
The second is a lovely shot from one of our Airbnbs as we criss-crossed the country.
At another Airbnb in Iceland, the owner provided cereal and milk for breakfast. When I saw this milk bottle, I couldn’t resist and took it outside for an extraordinary photograph. I knew I’d find a way to eventually use it.
The last picture came not from Iceland but from Gloucester. This is a freshly made slice of apple pie photographed in natural light on a plate from the former Gloucester Ocean View Inn and Resort.
Here is the final composite image, which entailed removing the fence posts, silhouetting the pie and plate, the milk bottle, and stone, and subsequently dropping them onto the background. Adding the horses and merging the grass took a bit of finesse.
John Salozzo, (a friend, retoucher, and pioneer Photoshop composer) and I worked on a few cards together in the early days. He liked to include family members, especially our children into the cards. Which in one form or another, I have continued to this day.
The back of the card is composed of 7 images. The background is a glacier at the Jökulsárlón Lagoon near Vatnajökull National Park in Iceland. The images include my children - the wedding of my son Ben and his wife Alex, and Kristen and her horse. The pie making images are all from Gloucester, while the background of the pie recipe was picked from one of the apples.
I think my grandmother would like that I’ve kept her tradition alive. She would have loved that the card included family, a little creativity, and a heartfelt message. Even more, she would have hoped, as do I, that it brought smiles to you and your family.