Christmas at the Gazebo

During our Christmas holiday in Del Rio, we spent part of Christmas Eve wondering around downtown and adjacent areas photographing the lights. This is the gazebo in the little park near downtown.

click for larger image

Canon 5D w/ 17-40mm f/4L
15 sec., f/8, 17mm, ISO 100 & 200 (two shot composite)

That's my wife, our older son (Henry), and myself sitting on the steps. I light-painted our faces with my LED flashlight during the exposure, however they're blurred because of the long shutter speed. This looks more like a trio of ghosts than a Christmas portrait :-)

The final photo is a blend of two exposures. The brighter exposure (ISO 200) better captured the warm light on the trees above the gazebo, and the darker exposure (ISO 100) captured the gazebo and colored lights. I blended the two shots in Photoshop using layer masks.

I'm not sure why I varied the ISO. Typically, I'd vary the shutter speed to make multiple exposures. But this worked just as well since ISO 100 and 200 are both very clean with the 5D.

Having us in the scene was a spur-of-the-moment thing. Tanya and Henry wandered up on the steps just as I was finishing the first exposure. I just set the timer and then grabbed them for a shot. It was only for fun.

I know I'm a little late in posting this, but I'm still working on a back-log of photos I took in December. There's more to come...