Ephemera

Posted by Hitch at 09:43 AM | Permalink

Posted by Hitch at 01:01 PM | Permalink

One more set of pics.

Not a lot going on here except a lot of lights.

(That, and I've given up any hope of doing away with camera shake.)

Another nearly all-white display... and the biggest glowing inflated snowman I've seen in anyone's yard.

This one has a lot of smaller glowing plastic figures, including, if I'm not mistaken, Mr. and Mrs. Santa on a hill overlooking the nativity.

Not a lot of lights here but I had to get a picture of the decorated gazebo. Aiiiiii!!!!

Lots of lights. Lots of colors. And that pink curve in the foreground is not a mistake. That's the densest string of lights I've seen strung between two trees.

This one doesn't show up quite as well as I'd like. The blue lights are all up in the underside of the lowest branches of the trees. A neat effect, which I didn't get a good picture of.

Another house that took two pictures to get it all in. A little bit of everything here.

(Including camera shake)

A fairly interesting grouping of 3-D lighted reindeer and tree.

If not for some of these others, this would seem like a lot of lights.

Another little bit of everything display.

(Who am I kidding? That's bunch of everything.)

And finally, my ultimate tribute to camera shake.

Posted by khitch at 09:19 PM | Permalink

Skeeter sent along a picture of the lights in her front yard to share.

Posted by Hitch at 08:46 PM | Permalink

Okay, I said the crazy lights house had a rather subdued display this year. I thought I'd swing by and get a picture of it.

(Yes, that's actually more modest than in recent years.)

But their neighbors are doing their best to make up for it.

and

(It takes two pictures to get all of this in.)

The whole neighborhood gets in on the act. This is just around the corner.

There are even more houses in that area with elaborate displays. I thought just a sampling would give you the idea.

Posted by khitch at 09:42 PM | Permalink

As I promised, here are a few of the Christmas light displays within easy walking distance of my house. I'll probably add more later because I'm not entirely happy with these.

I thought I'd start off with a fairly refined and dignified display.

This house has gone in for the latest trend in home light displays... giant inflated glowing "things." It's hard to get a sense of scale in this picture, but each of these hellish apparitions is over seven feet tall.

Now this house featured an interesting touch that doesn't quite show up as well as I'd like. Look carefully next to the mass of pink lights covering the tree and shrub in the foreground on the left. You can just make out the string of lights running up the flagpole.

And a few feet farther along, I get a shot of the other side of the yard. (I couldn't get it all in one shot.)

A very bright display, but somewhat tasteful in that it's all white. This might even be spectacular if it snowed. (But remember, I live in Georgia, and that ain't happening.) Another interesting feature are the helical spirals of lights. They're wrapped around the trunks of large oak trees. Proving you don't need cute little evergreens to make Christmas trees. Or do you?

More giant inflated glowing "things." That's not false perspective. Santa's hat does stick up higher than the eaves of the house. And we see another innovative use of a non-traditional tree for decoration. Just shoot a couple strands of lights as high as you can into the bare tree.

And, finally, I admire the way this one extends the lights so far from the house itself. The lights on the left actually form a right angle along the top of a fence around the side yard, at least 20 feet from the house. (The one very bright light in the center is not a Christmas light. That's a street light on the next street over.)

I had a lot of problems with camera shake. I hope do better with that on my next set. Actually, none of these houses are in the truly garish category. Unfortunately (or rather, fortunately for me) I have to go a bit farther away from home to find those.

Posted by khitch at 08:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)