Lighting the tree

Yesterday I was given a rather unusual present - well it wasn't really for me, it was for the Christmas tree.
Chinese technology is so much fun and so inexpensive! This gadget that is giving me so much pleasure is a little electronic box that directs a laser light show on to hard surfaces. The colours thrown are the colours of Christmas - red, green and yellow so we set it up to hit the Christmas tree. This is how it looks

camera details       3sec        f/7.1      ISO 200       26mm

Once I had started to use the camera I wanted more pictures so I moved in a little closer. With a slow shutter speed I expected to get a lot of blur from the moving lights so I was a little surprised at how sharp they turned out.

camera details       1.6 sec       f/7.1      ISO 200       55mm

A big fad at the moment is to capture "bokeh". Bokeh is the name given to the radically out of focus effect on lights. This effect is best when there is something in the foreground that is in focus and the pattern of lights are behind.

camera details       2 sec       f/7.1      ISO 200       50mm

And one more bokeh shot of the lights

camera details       2 sec       f/7.1      ISO 200       55mm

The laser light cannot be left on all day, the recommendation is to turn the thing off after a couple of hours to allow it to cool down. So most of the time we shall be illuminating the tree with the regular tree lights and when we have visitors we shall turn on the special effects!
AJ

Night works

My son is still showing off this area of Queensland to his girlfriend and when he offered to take me along with him when he took her up a nearby hill to see the lights of the Gold Coast I immediately said "yes", Not to worry, his plan was not to go "parking"! He really did want to show off the pretty vista! So with the entire family aboard his 4x4 and with every member carrying a camera of one kind or another and two tripods as well, we drove about five kilometres up "Monaro Drive". What a steep road! I have driven past this road so many times but have never driven up it - now I know not to!

f3.5  3 sec  ISO 200   18mm

This first image is of Surfers Paradise. I used two focal lengths since I was using the 18-55mm lens. To take the photos I put the camera into Live View which flips the mirror up - of course I was one of the two people using a tripod!

f/5.6 3sec ISO 200 55mm

And this second picture is using the other end of the lens. The very tall highrise building is right in the centre of Surfers Paradise and is known as the Q1 and is the tallest residential tower in the southern hemisphere.
I love having the opportunity to try something different with my camera!
Do click on each of the pictures if you would like to see them larger.
AJ