Stratford Christmas Lights

Happy New Year, everyone! To celebrate the start of 2014, I have one last Christmas-related post for this winter. I had hoped to get this posted before the first of the year, but with my trip at the beginning of this week I wasn't able to get to these photos before last night. So, please bear with me through one more Christmas post, and then it's on to other topics! I've got at least 8 posts queued up already, and more coming!

Last Friday night I headed out around our neighborhood to take photos of my neighbor's Christmas lights. I brought a tripod to do some long exposure shots (although these first three were not taken on a tripod), and brought my daughter along to teach her about long exposure using my Powershot on a smaller tripod (you can see her best photos here). While they didn't all come out as hoped, and we got pretty cold by the end, it was a lot of fun to do! Can't wait to see what my neighbors come up with next year.

 With having the tripod, I was able to do a few longer exposures and increased the ISO to capture more of the ambient light. These two shots are therefore came out a bit differently from those above, but I really like them, particularly the one below where you can make out the clouds in the sky.

 Finally, what says Christmas more than a Santasaurus?

Happy Holidays, everyone, and have a wonderful 2014! Thanks for following along here on my photography journey. I made it through 100 blog posts this year, starting a Facebook page which is close to 200 likes after less than a year, and have grown as a photographer. I'm really looking forward to what 2014 will bring!