Tag Archives: lights

Christmas Light Letdown

Zoomed christmas lightsWhen we lived in Gauteng we used to go into Johannesburg to see the Christmas lights every year.  It was great to drive slowly along the streets, looking at the lights as they passed overhead.

Since moving to Strand nine years ago we had never been into Cape Town to see the Christmas lights there, so yesterday we extended an outing around the peninsula into the night so that we could see them.

We were very disappointed to find that only a few blocks up Adderley Street, the road was closed off and beyond was the same melee of crowds and stalls selling every kind of plastic junk.  Just like Main Road in Somerset West during the Christmas Season.  We only went there once as we’re no fans of the noisy atmosphere at such events.

How sad that the lights in Adderley Street can’t be enjoyed as could those in Johannesburg.

It seems that others had a better experience than we did; different expectations I suppose.

Houston, We Have a Problem

Houston, We Have a Problem

People have been asking how I did this and I should probably have explained when I first posted it, so I’m editing the post now to add a description.

In order to achieve an effect like this one simply needs to use a zoom lens and make a long exposure, zooming out during the time the shutter is open. In this case I used a five second exposure and zoomed in tightly on the green spire. After tripping the shutter I counted four seconds and then zoomed out during the last second. As the lights below were much brighter than the spire, the result is that there is little or no visible light from the spire captured while zooming, leaving the top of the frame nice and dark and getting light trails below.