Christmas Card 2010

My photograph for 2010 was of a view of luscious green Welsh rolling fields seen though through a cross-shape carved stone aperture.

It gives the impression of being a Christian cross appropriate for Christmas (and being the opposite foreground/background to that of a tombstone, which would have looked morbid) but actually it is just looking through the centre of an arrow slit. Arrow slits are defensive windows which were designed to be easier to shoot arrows out of than into. This one is in the ruins of Carreg Cennen Castle. An arrow slit is a narrow vertical slit which it is more difficult for arrows to be shot into than to be shot out of. They typically have a bevelled inner so that the archer inside can angle their arrow over a wide range horizontally and the long slit is vertical to allow the archer to shoot at different angles vertically (including steeply downwards). Most of the vertical slit is hidden in this view by framing the picture closely in on the centre. Some arrow slits, including this one, have an additional small slit horizontally to allow an wider view. The full shape of the arrow slit can be seen in the following wider angle photograph of it.

Camera = Panasonic TZ5.

The border was a duplicate of last year's.

Downloads

• Photograph in screen resolution (as above).
• Photograph in original full resolution for printing.
• Border in original Corel Draw 7 format.
• Border converted to PDF format.

Card assembly instructions to duplicate the original:

1. Get the full resolution photograph printed at 6"x4.5" on photographic paper.
2. Print the border using a laser printer (or print once and duplicate by photocopier) on A4 160 g/m² white cardboard.
3. Fold the printed cardboard into an A5 greetings card with one straight crease.
4. Glue (or double sided selotape or similar) the photograph to the card in the correct orientation. Take care not to make the photograph too soggy.

Printing the border & photograph together on a colour printer does not give as good results (neither home laser nor inkjet printers have yet reached photographic printing quality). It also costs more (because of the ridiculous current price of printer ink) and gives a more mass-produced look.

More Christmas Cards

For the rest of my Christmas cards, go up to my Christmas card gallery page.

By Andrew Hardwick.
Distributable under GPL or CC-by-sa freeware licences.
Written 2011/1/3.
Metadata updated 2017/3/30.
Available on-line at http://duramecho.com.