Festival of Lights...

...at the Grotto. This is the best light show in my area plus there are excellent wandering carolers and plays and concerts and a petting zoo and so on. It's all set on a hillside in a forest of very tall Douglas fir trees.

I think these folks should give a class on keeping Christmas lights organized and untangled!

Here are a few snaps:

1/42s f/2.8 at 8.0mm iso1600 ev-.67



1/42s f/2.8 at 8.0mm iso1600 ev-1



1/25s f/2.8 at 8.0mm iso800 ev0



1/45s f/2.8 at 8.0mm iso1600 ev-1



1/70s f/2.8 at 8.0mm iso800 ev-1



Looking up a tree--there are many spot lights shining up at the trees above.
1/10s f/2.8 at 8.0mm iso1600 ev-1



The whole gallery is here:
http://www.pbase.com/zumbari/grotto_festival_of_lights

Bart
--
http://www.pbase.com/zumbari

Hi Bart,

I love light shows and this one, from your photos, looks to be exceptional. I used to spend the Holidays with my kids in Phoenix evey year and visit the Phoenix Zoo, where they had a display called "Zoo Lights". Couldn't make it this year, so miss all the lights. Thank you for sharing.

Best regards and Happy New Year,

Mike

These are super Bart, I love these Xmas light shots, the exposures are tricky but then the compositions are so very important and you did some lovely and creatvie compositions, in addition to the great exposures. (#2, 3 and second to last are just lovely in this regard)

Did you do any noise reduction, if so what do you use?

Photography; its about seeing the light!
Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/poochdp

Thanks Pooch!

The F30 has made me so lazy...I didn't do any NR (or any PP at all for that matter) on any of the shots other than downsizing. What a time-saver.

Bart

Pooch2 said:

These are super Bart, I love these Xmas light shots, the exposures
are tricky but then the compositions are so very important and you
did some lovely and creatvie compositions, in addition to the great
exposures. (#2, 3 and second to last are just lovely in this
regard)

Did you do any noise reduction, if so what do you use?

Photography; its about seeing the light!
Galleries: http://www.pbase.com/poochdp

Click to expand...

--
http://www.pbase.com/zumbari

Nice shots. What city is the Grotto in? We have a festival of lights in Los Angeles that the Department of Water and Power puts on every year near the zoo.

By the way, I know many of the discussions on this forum about the F31 revolve around personal opinion right now, but if you had a choice, would you purchase an F31 or stick with the F30 (at current market prices)? It's clear you are happy with the F30 and you have take a number of great pictures with it. I am nowhere near the photographer you are (mostly P&S). But I'm ready to buy...just confused if the F31 has enough features and changes to warrant the extra dollars.

Nice Bart!
I really love the candle shot on number 3...beautiful job...

Curious said:

Nice shots. What city is the Grotto in? We have a festival of
lights in Los Angeles that the Department of Water and Power puts
on every year near the zoo.

Click to expand...

The Grotto is in Portland, Oregon. It's private. We also have zoo lights, but you freeze your @ss off because you watch it sitting still in a little zoo train with freezing cold metal seats and it only lasts a few minutes. Last time I went it was rain and snow--ugghh! Not a good memory! The Grotto light show is a much better deal--lasts as long as you want and the singers are excellent.

Curious said:

By the way, I know many of the discussions on this forum about the
F31 revolve around personal opinion right now, but if you had a
choice, would you purchase an F31 or stick with the F30 (at current
market prices)? It's clear you are happy with the F30 and you have
take a number of great pictures with it. I am nowhere near the
photographer you are (mostly P&S). But I'm ready to buy...just
confused if the F31 has enough features and changes to warrant the
extra dollars.

Click to expand...

I love having the latest and greatest so that's a point in favor of the F31. On the other hand, it's not a terribly significant advantage for a $100 extra--plus I haven't seen enough info about the F31 to buy it. There might be some hidden improvements we don't know about yet. Or there aren't any hidden improvements. It's hard to make a value judgement in the absense of data. (I think the F31 is better overall, but I just don't think it's $100 better.)

You have two other possibilities as well. 1) The F20. 2) There are usually a lot of major P&S camera announcements starting in February which is just around the corner.

My personal choice would be to wait for the announcements. Otherwise, I consider it a plus that the F30 is available at Costco. So I guess I'm leaning towards the F30.

Bart
--
http://www.pbase.com/zumbari

Nice when a camera can do that.

Mike

Hi Bart, great shots with some nice perspectives. The candles shot is my fav. Regards and Happy New Year to you.
--
nico
http://www.pbase.com/agostinho

There are several places in the Los Angeles area to see Christmas lights. It's nice to see what other get to enjoy in their city since the displays here don't change much year to year.

Too bad that the rebate doesn't last until the new camera are announced. Even though the cameras are announced in February, aren't most of the cameras available a couple of months later? I know that the reviews are a couple of months after that. I'm the kind of shopper that draws out the shopping experience much longer than necessary. I guess I can't really worry too much what's coming out in a couple of months since something better is always six to twelve months away.

Thanks for your input.