Joy on the Christmas Tree / Finding Joy

Merry Christmas!

An ornament of Joy on our Christmas tree, giving a reminder of something to strive for this year.

I love the various Christmas trees at our house. This year, we have a couple of new additions, and you will probably be seeing those here sometime soon. And we still have a couple of our previous Christmas trees left to put up, too. But there is still plenty of time for that.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, we did get our main tree in our den put up, and it is wonderful as always. I have not yet taken a photo of the full tree, but I did take this one.

This “Joy” ornament is almost hidden inside the tree. You might have to look for it a little to be able to see it. But it is there, providing a reminder of joy. That is an important message, especially right now.

Finding Joy

Once I saw the Joy ornament almost hidden on our tree, I liked the thought of having to find joy. Because sometimes you have to look a little harder to find it.

Just as a reminder, joy is different than happiness. Happiness is based on what is happening to you at the moment. See the similarities between “happy” and “happen”? Not a coincidence!

But joy is different. Sometimes, you have to choose joy despite what is happening to you. That pretty much sums up 2020, doesn’t it? We can grumble about all the things that we have lost and all of the things that we haven’t gotten to do this year. We can complain about having to wear a mask and stay home.

Or we can look for the joy and celebrate that.

Finding joy is not always easy. But it gets easier the more you practice it. You can find things to be joyful about, because they are all around you. Family, friends, home, security, health, work, nature, and so on. There is plenty to be joyful about.

Just like this ornament on our Christmas tree, you can find joy. You just have to look for it sometimes.

Bible Verse

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” - Luke 2:10-11

About the Photo

In glancing at this photo, you might think it is an entry in the 50with50 series. But no, it isn’t, believe it or not. I just used the standard 28-70mm zoom lens. I did have the aperture open pretty wide to give the bokeh look that you would get with a prime lens. But I also used that aperture setting due to the low light levels, too. If I had used the prime lens and its wider aperture, I could have used a lower ISO setting than ISO 1600, but it all turned out okay.

Because this ornament was somewhat hidden inside the tree, I had to use one hand to move some of the light cords out of the way while holding the camera with my other hand. That was the other reason that I needed the higher ISO setting - to get the shutter speed high enough that I did not have to hold the camera quite as steady. I still ended up with a shutter speed of 1/20 second, but that was fast enough for my hand not to shake. Be sure to check out Steve’s Photography Tips if you need more explanations of any of these photography terms, by the way.

I always like the glow from the lights in these Christmas tree photos, so I was happy to have the opportunity to photograph this ornament and once again capture that glow.

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Aurora HDR. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS lens
Date: November 30, 2020
Location: Home, Williston, Tennessee