Starving Artistry

National Tree & Stuff

// December 18th, 2009 // Photo

So Taylor and I took a trip out to the mall so I could snap some pics of the National Tree. Every pic took so long to set up, ’cause i had to use a tripod since it was so dark… out of the 30 – 40 shots I took, I only had maybe 4 or 5 useable ones. But, c’est l’avie.

So here’s the national tree. I kept the exposure high so that it seemed like it was glowing. Stupid me, I accidentally had the ISO set to 6400, so it’s kinda grainy, but you can’t tell on Flickr. One benefit of them resizing it I guess.

They had these little trains set up going around the tree, with little towns on 4 sides of it. This was one of them. Again, kept the exposure high so that the lights sparkle like that. Also gets some motion blur from the trains making it seem like they were whizzing by, whereas in fact they were veeeery slow.

Here’s another shot, same village but you get some of the national tree in it. I like the light trails from the trolley going around the track.

They had a place set up where you could meet Santa. He was on break. Taylor was sad. Sad, sad, sad. =(

So, later on that evening I went home and was wrapping presents. Rather, Taylor was wrapping my presents for me, while I was taking pictures of the inside of a Tiffanie’s lamp. Interesting perspective, fun colors I think.

Then it was time to take Taylor home, but not before stopping by a nearby neighborhood to take some last minute photos. Each one of these shots were at a 30 sec exposure, so Taylor got really bored…

I like this shot, but I wish i had the house on the left centered. I like how many stars came out.

Incidentally, if you zoom in, you can see the stars are actually a little blurry. Apparently 30 seconds is long enough to see the stars move due to the Earth’s rotation. That’s pretty crazy! I really want to set my camera up and do a time lapse some time. Next time you notice the sky clear at night, let me know! It sure as heck won’t be this weekend. Anywhere from 5 – 20 inches of snow. Crazy!