Star light, star bright . . .

by Kim

First star I see tonight,

I wish I may, I wish I might,

Have the wish I wish tonight.

I am always up for a challenge to try something new, to expand my horizons . . . to just play.

In fact I've been wanting to try some nightscapes of downtown Houston, and missed the opportunity awhile back when my photography meetup, met up on a street corner downtown. And while I'm completely okay with going to the sunrise by myself, I'm not as comfortable at night by myself.

In the first image, I set up my tripod, set it to bulb mode, using my wide angle lens and an f-stop of 16. I had planned on light painting with a flashlight and then I had one of those aha moments. Instead of light painting words or squiggly lines, I would try to make star bursts instead. So using my remote, with my camera and tripod on my neighbors sidewalk, I walked back over to my front yard and simply stood in different spots flashing the light on and off. It's the same concept as getting a star burst with the sun during the day, only with a different light source and for a longer period of time.

Next time though, I would turn the lights in the house off and maybe enlist a few more people with flashlights in a few windows. If you look close on the left hand side you can see the red trails of a car that went by during this exposure.

This next image is a bit wobbly. Again using my wide angle, ISO at the lowest setting (100), choosing to start at 5 seconds with an f-stop of 10, I held the camera as still as possible. But that's pretty impossible to do in the car, especially in a smaller car. We were on our way to eat, and were driving our compact car so front seat it was for me. I would like to try this one again, with the tripod, in the back seat of my van (sounds like a game of clue for photographers). My goal was to get fairly straight light trails. I've tried this many times, only I used camera movement for really abstract images. I had a few that had the dashboard in them, but this was the best I could get of the trails. A fairly smooth road at a lower speed seems to work better.

The last image below was my husband driving in a circle in our cul de sac. I was just waiting for someone to call the police to report a crazy drunk guy turning his lights on and off and using his flashers! lol  I think this would have been a better image if either before or after he drove in circles that I used a flashlight for a few seconds to light up the car. This was a 30 second exposure on f16 . I feel it needs a little more interest and will work some more on this one too. I'll try the van next time and maybe even enlist my son to sit in the passenger side with a flashlight?  

So many possibilities, so little time! Go ahead, experiment, get creative. Share them with us and tell us how you did it.

"Night is not something to endure until dawn.

It is an element, like wind or fire. Darkness is its

own kingdom; it moves to its own laws. And

many living things dwell in it."

- Patricia A McKillip

Holiday Traditions 101

by Dotti

Professor:  Good morning, class! Many of you, I know, are in a great hurry to get through this class and head home for the holidays but we have one more subject to discuss in order to complete this semester's class on Holiday Traditions. To help put you in the Christmas spirit, we're going to discuss the tradition of Christmas lights.

Now, does anybody have any ideas about how the practice of using Christmas lights began? Yes, Susie, please tell us what you know.

Susie: Didn't it begin during Queen Victoria's reign?

Professor: Well, Queen Victoria certainly had a big role in making the tradition popular.

As best we can tell, the practice of using candles to light Christmas trees began in upper class homes in Germany in the 18th century. Since candles were quite expensive then, only those who were rich could afford to do this.

In the United Kingdom, the practice did indeed become established during Queen Victoria's reign. From there it spread to North America and Australia. Candles, of course, were not an ideal way to light a tree and care had to be taken to avoid fires.

Electric lights were introduced during the 1880's and eventually replaced most, if not all, use of candles, although some cultures do still use candles today. In the United Kingdom, the electric lights are commonly referred to as 'fairy lights',

In 1895, President Grover Cleveland had the honor of lighting the first electrically lighted White House Christmas tree. It's said that there were 100 multicolored lights on it. That seems odd to us today when we realize that trees in most American homes have far more than one hundred lights. But the lights then were quite a bit larger than the lights we see today. Today's lights do truly look like 'fairy lights'.

At first all the Christmas lights remained indoors. It wasn't until the early 1900's that lighted Christmas trees were introduced to the outdoors, perhaps in San Diego, though other cities also lay claim to being the 'first'.

After that, Christmas lights seemed to appear all over, in doorways, windows, store windows, on light posts, just about everywhere. It wasn't until the 1950's that the practice of using lights as outdoor displays found its way into the average American home.

The first Christmas lights were indeed crude by our standards today. Now 'twinkle lights' or 'mini lights' are very inexpensive and seem to appear everywhere during the holidays. Some outdoor displays are quite elaborate not only using thousands of lights but mechanized special effects to create scenes and stories. And now almost every American city of any size has a commercial Festival of Lights.

So there you have just a brief history of the use of lights at Christmas time. Wherever, whenever this tradition began, the best part is simply enjoying all the beautiful lights that surround us at this time of year. And if you're like me, the lights you enjoy most are those on your very own Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas!

Class dismissed.

Research for this post came from Wikipedia.

A Festival of Lights

by Kim

"Christmas waves a magic want over this world, and behold,

everything is softer and more beautiful."

- Norman Vincent Peale

In the next town over is the most spectacular display of lights....really incredible. In fact, we probably spent (my hubby and I) three hours walking around. And, I'm pretty sure we were the only ones without kids, which meant we were able to pass the Santa line and go collect all ten halospex glasses.

I think I read on the sign that there were over 2 million tiny twinkling, white and colored lights. All for my photographic enjoyment. And seriously, if it weren't for those glasses I'm sure my other half wouldn't have wanted to stay that long.

And what's better than a free night of lights? Oh, the part where you park in a designated parking lot, load a bus and get driven to the festival! 

Once we stepped off the bus the fun began.. I shook, rattled and rolled my camera. Put it on manual mode, manual focus and threw every single rule out the proverbial window. So liberating!

Oh, and those glasses aren't just for your eyes. They worked like a charm on not only my phone, but on my big girl camera as well.

Snowflake shaped bokeh, equals . . . pure magic.

The toy soldiers even came to life in 3D with the right movement of the camera.

And a little zooming in or out with the camera to pull the lights. People walking by always make it a little more interesting and I do love the partial silhouette effect.

Three hours seems like a long time to spend taking photos of lights, but I don't think I've had my fill of light fun quite yet. So many possibilities! 

Like faux star trails . . .  

This may not be your cup of photography tea, but I encourage you to find somewhere by you that has something similar and take your camera. Experiment, have fun, drink hot chocolate.

May your Christmas season be merry and bright, and this day . . .  electrifying!

Peace, Kim