Christmas Lights Photography

As I talked about in my Christmas Lights 2008 post, I did a bit of Christmas lights this year. After I got them all done back on Dec. 18, I took a bunch of pictures of me and Nate's handiwork (would you expect anything else?). I was completely dissatisfied with the pictures, so of course I went right to Google to find out how to take pictures of Christmas lights. Some suggestions were obvious (no flash, use a tripod), others were arcane with f-stops, apertures and manual white balance, but almost all said 2 things: shoot the pictures at dusk and set the white balance to tungsten (aka incandescent bulbs). Shooting at dusk means you get both the lights and the background. The trick is to bracket your shots over time and then pick the best ones. (Much easier now that it's just pixels instead of film). The white balance setting accounts for the fact that all those bulbs (or at least all of mine) have little tungsten filaments in them which glow yellow. Using the tungsten setting gives everything, like the snow, a cool blue glow and makes the sky look awesome. If I remember my physics correctly that makes sense since blue and yellow combined make white.

I headed out at about 4:15 PM on Christmas and after choosing some prime spots, I started shooting at about 4:25 PM. I knew this was too early since I was still able to hold the camera and shoot without a tripod. As it get darker, I kept shooting every few minutes. It was cold enough that I had to wear gloves and the driveway refroze, but luckily neither me nor the camera ended up on the ground. I managed, too, not to get run over when I shot from the street. I even got a compliment on the lights from a driver who missed me. The one element of the lights that I seemed to get a good bracketing on was the inflatable Nativity, which I talk about in my Christmas Lights 2008 post. Below are the shots over time with the time stamps. I think I like the 5:01 PM picture the best, but the one before that is OK, too. You can see that by 5:10 PM, I was just getting the lights.


For those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, I suppose these techniques would work just as well on a Menorah or whatever holiday decorations you put up.

Christmas Lights 2008

This year, I put up more Christmas lights and decorations outside than I ever have in my 7 years here in Bethlehem. Some of it certainly was the fact that we had a warm weekend when Nate was here and a warm day that I took as vacation. (OK - warm meaning in the 40's for those of you not in the Northeast) I think too that since last year I didn't get to do any lights because the weather was cold and wet and, with a torn ACL, I really wasn't up for climbing on the roof. Maybe subconsciously this year I wanted to spruce the place up since all we hear is bad news about economy and since Kenny hasn't done as much here since he has been focused on his new house. Whatever the reason, Nate and I had a blast doing the lights and decorations. Here is the finished display. (My Christmas Lights Photography talks all about how I took the pictures, so I won't repeat here.)


Nate did all of the lights on the porch and the shed and most of the work on the inflatable Nativity. I did the net lights on the shrubs, the lights on the stairs, the toy soldiers (which NatesMom and I got many years ago), the luminary bags and the electrical, as well as helping Nate with the Nativity. Kenny got the luminary bags in an after Christmas sale a couple years ago for $1 for a box of five. They are all electric and you can string up to 30 bags together. I spent a lot of time working on them but they came out looking pretty nice. I used a combination of timers and light sensors so all I had to do every night was the Nativity. For an added fun touch, I replaced the regular bulbs in the driveway lamps with red bulbs.




The most fun part of the display is the inflatable Nativity. I've been kind of anti-inflatables in the past. They usually are snowmen or Santas and always seemed to be deflated or blown around when I saw them. But when I went to Lowes (see Is the Christmas Season Over?), they had the inflatable Nativity with life size Mary and Joseph for 50% off. I've looked for a life sized Nativity in the past, so I decide that if it was still there a week later when I had Nate to help me carry it, I'd buy it. It was, so I bought it and Nate got a trip to Longhorn Steakhouse out of the deal. Nate's take on the set was a little different - he wondered what it meant that the only inflatables left were the religious themed ones. The set consists of the inflatable manger, Mary and Joseph who are heads with clothes, attached to metal pipes. Baby Jesus is attached to his "bed". Everything gets screwed in the ground and has held up pretty well despite snow storms and wind. Nate and I had a slight physics failure by not attaching the guy wires at 45 degrees which caused the manger to fall over backwards, but that was remedied by attaching a bungee cord from the manger to Joseph.

I've gotten some nice compliments on the display and even though I spent a bit to get it all right this year, everything from the decorations, to the lights to the electrical should last for many more years.

Christmas 2008 Pictures

Every year, for a long time now, Nate and I have gone to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. We have appetizers in the afternoon, a big, pseudo-fancy dinner around 7 and then get ready for Mass. We try to take a picture before we head out to Mass, especially now that we are both in suits. The tripod and remote for the camera make the whole process much easier. Here are this year's pictures from dinner and before Mass:

Revelation Generation

It seems somehow appropriate that my 1st post in a long time is about a Christian Music event, since my first postings in this blog were about the Cornerstone Music Festival. On Saturday, August 31, 2008, I attended Revelation Generation in Frenchtown, NJ for the first time. To quote their website, RevGen is "the premier Christian festival in greater New York and greater Philadelphia. With the best Contemporary Christian and crossover music—from rock to rap to worship to metal—this two-day mega-event is a great way for youth groups, church groups, families, and singles to come together for a dynamic, memorable concert experience. Last Labor Day Weekend." (http://www.revelationgeneration.org/the_event/what_is_revgen.php). I attended in two roles - as adult leader for our youth group, LifeSygns, and as an ersatz photojournalist.

I had a great time at the event, not only because of the awesome music, but because of the access I received with my Press Pass. Not only did I get to bypass the main ticket gate, but I got access to artist press conferences, including Toby Mac and Peter Furler of the Newsboys. For a while, we had access between the front row and the stage, but oddly that was taken away for no explainable reason after the first couple acts. The event took place on two main stages, the NY Stage, which had more pop and contemporary music, and the Philly Stage, which was more rock and metal. Even though performers on each stage were staggered, I spent a lot of time hustling between the stages trying to get pictures of as many of the acts as possible. By the end of the day I was exhausted and felt like I had walked 10 miles!

Here is a link to a web album of some of the shots I took during the concert (I actually took over 250):

http://picasaweb.google.com/mwcawley/RevelationGeneration2008?authkey=h8ZrgJZO8EU

Many of the pictures were taken with a lens I picked up last year (and should have blogged about :( ) - a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8 L IS USM Lens. Yes, it was expensive, but it allowed me to take many of the night time shots without a flash from 100 feet from the stage.

Just to be on the up and up about the Press Pass...I have offered my pictures to the Catholic Spirit, the weekly newspaper for the Diocese of Metuchen. While not a "Catholic" event, many Catholics attended and commented on our choice of the Papal Flag as our place marker. I was actually amazed, not by the amount of Catholics, but by the fact that they knew the Papal flag. We shall see if the Spirit publishes my pictures, but at least I gave them the opportunity to cover an event that built up the faith of the youth of the Diocese.