I am constantly surprised by things here, some are cultural, some are climatical. But OH! The traditions are the ones that are grabbing my attention the most.
Take last evening.
I work for a small local community television station. My husband and I have been trained in camera operation on the side, and took up the assignment of covering the Mountain View Tree Lighting Ceremony. We donned our parkas and comfy shoes and were at our cameras at the ready at 5pm. DH had the wide shots, located at the rear of the seating area and I was up near the front for the close-ups. We were LIVE. We had a blast, got a little cold, were amazed at the goobers who have no notion that they shouldn't stand right in front of a huge television camera on a tripod, or that a 6' adult with a child on shoulders are hard to film thru even if you are on a riser...argh.
My real amazement...and my total shock was yet to come. Obviously I'm in denial that my expectations had possibly gotten the better of me. Aren't Christmas trees (ESPECIALLY THOSE PICKED FOR CEREMONIAL TREE LIGHTING!) supposed to be elegant evergreens? (OK, so in San Fran., there is even the artificial one at the wharf that is relatively acceptable to me, lol.) I wanted all twinkly lights, and feel the total awesome-ness of it's beauty. What I got was this:
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I guess if you put enough presents UNDER it, it might be OK...sheesh.
Oh yeah, and to make matters worse, DH got the good parting shot with the blurry lights fading to black.
Bah Humbug.
Good thing I wasn't in charge of cropping photos, huh?
8 comments:
hehehe...seen everything now!
Ok, so its not traditional, but I still think it is very pretty. I kind of like the lit branch and twig shapes. Jen
I think it's pretty neat, but I have lived in California for a long time.
I moved to Houston from Chicago and the first thing I noticed were the branches lit on trees like this. I absolutely love it!!
I have given up the traditional look of Christmas and it is much more refreshing to me now!
I'm an old camera operator. Me and the hubby have been doing media for years, and now I do it for my church services instead of for a station. But it STILL never ceases to amaze me how stupid people can get in front of a camera.
We've been lighting the regular trees up for years in our part of Texas, but... a REAL Christmas tree is an evergreen tree. Our town puts up an enormous artificial evergreen tree for the "official" Christmas tree. Its just fun to decorate the bare trees and the shrubbery too. I thought they did that everywhere.
I'm with you--give me a big old Frazier Fir any day! But it does have its charms. Several desiduous trees were lit in Temple Square in Salt Lake City for Christmas--but, of course, they were en masse so it gave a gorgeous overall effect.
I love trees lit up like this. I just like lights during this dark season, I don't care what they light up.
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