While on break, I had fun experimenting shooting in full manual mode with the Canon Digital Rebel XT. I forgot how much I enjoyed picking and adjusting exposures, and unlike the old Nikkormat, I could immediately see if I guessed right.
At night, I played with long exposures on a tripod of the holiday lights on our cabin. This is our decorated tree sitting on the back deck. Each year we have purchased one of these living pines (a strain that is not susceptible to the bark beetle which has decimated the Ponderosa Pines the last 2 years) that we then plant on our property. These trees are very fast growing; the one we planted 2 1/2 years ago has easily grown 2 feet since then.
Tree Lights
available on my flickr
Another round with a manual and lonig night time exposure. Our Christmas tree is a live Austrian Black pine we will plant after New Years.