Coming out of the hotel to catch the shuttle to Wildcater Ranch one morning last week in Graham Texas, I looked to the east and was taken with the dawn light behind this lighted steeple, and with the silhouettes of the trees. I framed it several different ways, but this was the keeper.

Canon SX40HS at 250mm equivalent field of view, f5 @ 1/40th @ ISO 800. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation.

Processed in Lightroom for Intensity and Sharpness.

And for the Sunday thought: Photography is all about catching the play of light and shadow. Note that it is not “light and darkness”…it is definitely light and shadow. We are creatures of light. Light is our reality. Darkness is simply the absence of light. It has no substance of its own, and it always flees at the first hint of light. Every photograph is a record of the light that stuck the film or the sensor…producing a chemical change or a charge that is then rendered into an image of reality. Shadow is only the record of where the light did not reach.

Or taking a word from another tradition: “The light of the world has come into the world, and it utterly defeats the darkness.” That is the promise and that is the reality we celebrate this season. So happy Sunday…and an early Merry Christmas, from a dawn in Graham Texas.