POTD- Christmas Decorations

My home Christmas lights, inside and out

Since this thread started as a place for posting our home Christmas displays...I finally got the chance to shoot mine. ; I got the outside lights up before Pixelmania, and got my tree the day I got back, and finally finished decorating it last week. ; Last night, I finally got around to snapping a few photos of it all:

 

The shot with the zoomy lights was done by taking a long exposure on tripod - 10 seconds or so...and a zoom lens. ; Starting with the longer end of the lens (In my case I was using a 10-18mm lens, so I started at 18mm)...as soon as the exposure begins, slowly move the zoom ring back to the 10mm end...take about 2-3 seconds to do it. ; Then, the remainder of the exposure will be an 8 second shot fixed at 10mm...but the lights from the 18mm to 11mm zoom will have painted themselves onto the frame.


It's a silly effect - I've done it here or there - some photographers think it's a bit hokey - but I figure if you do it a few times a year, it can be fun and not too overbearing! ; For some reason, Christmas always makes me want to do a few.


Thanks guys!