A traditional time of year so a traditional-ish joiner.

There is a shifting of viewpoints, parallell, from above and from the front. A scene like this needs the natural light so the flash in not used (which I rarely do, anyway). You want the warm colours from flooring to bright materials to come out. This means there is sometimes a bit more blurr than I care for. The lamps and surrounding area are a real bind normally as this requires messing around with light values to balance things off. Here it is simply admitted that different photographs interpret the light values differently and the more detailed dark images are stuck up next to the details of a bright image.You can see this in the right hand lamp and photograph. You can have it both ways, you just can't have it three ways - bright, dark, and matching unnoticeably.

There are a lot of Union Jacks in there and it may look like a National Front rally but they were just Christmas presents. When I am older and have my own country I think I'll have a national flag made of the colours 'taup' and 'teal' so there will be great debates by my people in the streets and in the cafes as to what the actual colours really are..

I didn't square and proportion the upper photograph completely and now it is bothering me. I'm fighting the instinct to 'fix it'. A piece like this is, in a way, about proper and improper and trying to see them as the same two imposters. Must...move on.

The detail below from a table top is another clue to Christmas: an uneaten piece of Toblerone: (T is for Toblerone. RIP Sue Grafton)