Solstice Greetings

Lovely, thank you. And my best wishes for a happier and healthier 2022 to everyone!

"The Winter Solstice is the time of the death of the old sun & the birth of the dark-half of the year. The Winter Solstice was called "Alban Arthuan," Welch for "Light of Winter" by the Druids. This was a time of dread for the ancient peoples, as they saw the days getting shorter & shorter."

We get to dread another COVID spike.

Ah, yes. But starting tomorrow, the days grow longer.

Wilt wrote in post #19321235
"The Winter Solstice is the time of the death of the old sun & the birth of the dark-half of the year. The Winter Solstice was called "Alban Arthuan," Welch for "Light of Winter" by the Druids. This was a time of dread for the ancient peoples, as they saw the days getting shorter & shorter."

We get to dread another COVID spike.

Isn't it the other way around? The summer solstice is when the days start getting shorter and shorter and the winter solstice is when the days start getting longer. the 21/22 is the shortest day of the year with each day getting longer and each night shorter.

gjl711 wrote in post #19321248
Isn't it the other way around? The summer solstice is when the days start getting shorter and shorter and the winter solstice is when the days start getting longer. the 21/22 is the shortest day of the year with each day getting longer and each night shorter.

Well, I simply quoted what was written on the topic of Druids and Solstice, at https://bjws.blogspot.​com …ice-druids-mistletoe.html
But, yeah, daytime is shortest on Winter Solstice and progressively gets longer until Summer Solstice. Proves you can't necessarily trust what you read on the web!

gjl711 wrote in post #19321248
Isn't it the other way around? The summer solstice is when the days start getting shorter and shorter and the winter solstice is when the days start getting longer.

Yes, at the winter solstice the days start getting longer. I took Wilt's quotation to mean that ancient peoples felt dread as they approached the winter solstice.

A note for the writer of the text that Wilt posted: It's "Welsh," not "Welch."

We've advanced as a civilization and have the luxury to talk about the quality of light rather than worry about its mere presence.

Winter is my favorite solstice, quality-of-light wise. What's yours?

One more from that day

gjl711 wrote in post #19321248
Isn't it the other way around? The summer solstice is when the days start getting shorter and shorter and the winter solstice is when the days start getting longer. the 21/22 is the shortest day of the year with each day getting longer and each night shorter.

the shortest day does depend on where you live...

joeseph wrote in post #19321306
the shortest day does depend on where you live...

You mean there is another 1/2 of the planet. Surely you jest..

joeseph wrote in post #19321306
the shortest day does depend on where you live...

Oh, my. Another thread going south!

drsilver wrote in post #19321269
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Winter is my favorite solstice, quality-of-light wise. What's yours?
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Definitely the summer solstice.

Here where I live, this time of year typically has very drab light, day after day after day, for a couple of months. . There have been years when in December and January, we have gone a full month without a minute of sunlight. . A thick blanket of cloud cover that stretches uninterrupted from one horizon to the other. . It makes everything look like it has a dingy gray film lying over it. . And if that isn't bad enough, it doesn't get light enough for a decent exposure until after 8 in the morning, and then by 4 in the afternoon, it's too dark to get a decent exposure.

Even if it was sunny here in the winter, the days are so darn short that it doesn't give one a chance to do what one loves most for more than 9 hours a day, tops.

Conversely, it is usually clear during the summer solstice in June. . We're far enough north that daylight lasts a long time, so our golden hour is more like a golden hour and a half. . I can get wildlife photos at 5 in the morning that have beautiful soft sunrise light on them, and then go out at 7 or 8 o'clock at night and still have good wildlife opportunities, because the sun doesn't set until after 9 o'clock.

I'm not saying that overcast conditions are always bad for photography, and that clear days with golden hour sunlight are always the best for everything, but having drab dark overcast all day long, day after day after day, well that gets old real fast.


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I like winter for the mirror-image reasons you like summer.

I'm not a big fan of summer shooting. You mentioned an hour and a half of morning light but I think we're lucky if we can even get an hour in before the sun shoots straight up overhead and stays there, unobstructed, for the next 14 hours. Harsh, harsh overhead. And, I gotta get up not too long after the bars close if I want to catch that first hour.

Winter has weather. Actual precipitation takes all the fun out of it, but short of that, winter light can be great and it changes all the time. I can change weather by changing elevation. If it's just gray, you have a giant soft box, if you choose to look at it that way. And I can have a big breakfast and a second cup of coffee and still make first light.

Those pictures above were shot near Banks Lake and the Grand Coulee dam, so not too far from you. I'm heading back out there next week if I can get across the pass.

EDIT: And I wear fingerless gloves.

Thanks for the well wishes, Looking forward to a great and fulfilling 2022.
We couldn't have been more grateful for a better year we had, but we are hoping for a bigger and greatest one!