Photography Tip for Holiday Lights

A few days ago I promised to post a picture of the two beautiful large Christmas trees in the lobby of my office building. Since then I have repeatedly taken pictures, but the lighting just wasn't right. I tried flash and no flash and different times of the day, but the pictures came out either too dark or too fuzzy.

Today I received a newsletter from Microsoft which included a link to some quick photography tips for this time of year. I decided to try Tip #4 which suggests that to capture the warmth of holiday lights or candles you should use the night shot feature of your camera with the flash. I tried it, and this picture was the result. You can click the photo to see it larger. It's a tiny bit fuzzy, but I think that's unavoidable due to the long exposure. That's what makes the lights show up. I like the way you can even see the lights reflected in the marble floor.

As you can see, there are two of these beautiful trees in the lobby. Note the person in the far right of the photo for scale - those are some really large trees. Of course these are artificial trees, and I don't know what they use to make them smell so wonderful, but from the incredible scent you would think they are real.

Doesn't it make you want to sing? O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree...