Fargo, North Dakota.

It’s Christmas day as I am writing this while listening to Nat King Cole sing “The Christmas Song” on satellite radio. I just went online to view this week’s photo challenge. Jen H. asks us to share our interpretation of Now. How easy is that? Now is a holiday. You can read Jen’s entire challenge post here.

We traveled light to Fargo for our family Christmas get-together, so my Nikon D-7000 is safely tucked away in Arizona. My only camera for the season is my cell phone, a Samsung S6. Though the sensor in the camera is small, the files created are 16 megapixel, same resolution as the D-7000. Given the smaller sensor and lesser quality lens, I am often surprised at the image quality delivered by the cell phone.

The camera has a selective focus mode that I experiment with occasionally. In the two photos here, I used the mode to attempt to give an out-of-focus background to the photos of the Christmas ornaments. It didn’t work as well as I would have liked as the background isn’t far enough away to really go that far out of focus. The image above shows the feature better than the opening shot.

My two images focus on “Now” in two respects. They were taken last night and today, respectively, unlike most of my challenge entries which are gathered from my photo gallery. The other aspect of “Now” is that these images reflect the now popular use of a cell phone camera instead of a dedicated camera. It is certainly understandable why camera companies are having trouble selling simple point-and-shoot cameras. Why carry around another electronic box to take photos when a high quality camera in your pocket does still photos, videos and can call 911 in an emergency.

In honor of the holiday season, for those who celebrate Christmas, I leave you with the following treat.

And so I’m offering this simple phrase
To kids from one to ninety-two
Although it’s been said many times
Many ways, Merry Christmas to you

John Steiner