Another Nativity Scene From my Past

In middle school and high school I started collecting the pieces in this nativity scene.  It is a Fontini set and I think part of the appeal when younger was the resemblance to many Renaissance images and the way you could keep adding pieces as they where always coming out with new ones.  Much like stormtroopers and Ewokswhen it came to Star Wars figures so with shepherds and angels in the nativity scene, there where never too many.  Being from Lancaster county with its German heritage and not far from Bethlehem PA with its Moravian heritage, this expansive set was not unlike a Putz which incorporated multiple scenes and vignettes in the retelling of the story of Christmas.  This picture does not include all of the 49 figurine's I collected over the years.  Two years ago someone made a backdrop for me to use with this scene by covering a silhouette of rolling hills with dark velvet fabric and threading varied lengths and thicknesses of fiber optic cable.  After everything was finished he used two lights which faded in and out at staggered intervals and each a slightly different color.  These lights served as the source lights for he fiber optics.  The end result was a twinkling star filled night sky with occasional clouds passing over in the inky dark firmament above.  The image below is not of that backdrop but inspired by it.

Digital editing on this photograph is the work of Michal Harrison