In 1988 our Christmas card featured our Nativity set in black and white. This beautiful set was a hand-made and hand-painted Wedding gift from the Kest’s. Our 2002 card featured this set again, this time in color, and with ourselves in the picture.

I have to say, this is probably my favorite card. It is centered on the birth of Christ, and our anticipating his arrival. It features one of our favorite Christmas treasures, and it had all of us in the picture. 

From a technical standpoint, this used techniques from previous cards like digital photography, composite photos in Photoshop, and professional printing with Ofoto (Kodak). On the other hand, it did all of these things better. From the lighting to the color balance to the composition, everything seemed to work better in this image.

The Nativity itself and the grass in the foreground are one image. Each of the five of us was photographed separately and combined electronically. The background is actually a composite of a photo of European mountains with a computer-generated sky with star and lens flare effect. This was all done on a new iMac G4 with pivoting flat-screen monitor and DVD burner.