A few weeks before Thanksgiving, I looked out our front window and saw the most beautiful sky you can imagine. The sun was setting behind our neighbor’s house across the street. A grabbed my iPhone and took a few pictures knowing that the moment would be gone if I went for the Nikon. To my surprise, the colors came out amazingly close to what I had seen with my own eyes. 

We headed to Copake for our annual Thanksgiving feast with family and friends and I kept thinking about that photo. Wouldn’t it be great if I could find a nice New England style church to fill the foreground and use it as our Christmas card? On the drive home we decided to go the back way through Stockbridge Mass to get to the Mass Pike. We found Saint Joseph’s Church along one of the back streets of Stockbridge. It dates back to 1862, and was perfect complement to the sunset at our house.

The image is all about light and the range of colors, shadows, and textures it can project. The first few lines of John’s Gospel are all about light, and that Jesus is the light of the world. It seemed a very appropriate complement to the photo for this year’s card.

Both pictures were taken with my iPhone 5S. They were combined in Photoshop…it was a little tricky removing the background of the church side street. The trees were the toughest. Once combined I made final adjustments in Aperture, and finally order the card from Apple through iPhoto.