We visited Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens the other day evening to check out their annual “Deck the Halls” event. I had never been able to go due to my schedule, but this year is different. We arrived about an hour before sunset and took some time to walk through the house. As the name suggests, the place was decked out with multiple rooms of many holiday themes from a snowman’s birthday party to the Muppets.

Outside was lit up like a magical fairyland castle. There were lights everywhere and there was even a light show with Christmas trees dancing to music. It was pretty cold out, but we managed to walk the entire place. If it hadn’t been so cold we probably would have gone back through again.

The phone is one of several at Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens in Akron, OH. The house is the former home of the Seiberling Family – two of the brothers co-founded The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Even with all the amazing holiday decorations. I found myself drawn to this old phone under a downlight. One of the docents even said, “With everything here you’re taking a picture of that?”

This photo was taken as part of the 52Frames weekly photo challenge. This week the challenge was to take a picture in monochrome. This was fun for me as I had never done that, and I discovered some new ways to use the camera. I wasn’t aware that there were picture modes that I could easily switch between. It’s interesting to look through the lens in color, and then switch to black and white- it’s almost like looking at a whole new scene.

Nikon Z6iii, f/6.3, 1/30sec, ISO14400