Blue Light Special (L.E.D.)

Being a photographer and designer, I couldn’t just design, plan, and build a fifteen foot tall blue illuminated Christmas tree and not photograph it. Impossible! I learned a few unexpected thing during the way.

For one, the new L.E.D. (light emitting diode) Christmas lights are way efficient. This tree has over 700 bulbs, but is using less energy than one 60 watt traditional light bulb. Save the planet with less energy use-great, cut my electric bill down-way cool. And that makes me less scroogish at Christmas time. Yes, I’m the guy that goes around unplugging everything at 9p.m. to prevent a triple-sized December utility present, but not anymore.

One other interesting thing was my memory is not completely shot. When building this thing, I had two variables, but one missing. I knew the light string was 16 feet long and the center of the tree was 15 feet tall. I needed to figure out how far from the base the strings needed to be anchored. I actually recalled the Pythagorean theorem from high school geometery. A triangle’s missing side can be equated by the formula A(2) x B (2) = C(2) ((2)= squared. I’m not sure how to show squared in a blog post). Anyway the strings extend out about five and a half feet from the center pole. Don’t ask me how I remembered because many more important things have gone missing during searches of my memory lately.

Now back to the photography part. Here I was taking the photo of the tree, as a tree. Then I thought, what if I do some abstract close ups of the lights. The L.E.D. lights "vibrate" or twinkle, especially if you move your head back and forth.My guess is that the L.E.D.s are pulsing at a slow enough frequency our eyes and brain can register. I started by doing some long exposures, 1 to 3 seconds, and zooming the lens during the shot. Then I moved the camera around during the shot. The results are these really cool organic circle textures. If you look close at the streaks you can see individual light circles. I believe this is the pulsation of the L.E.D. lights. Most other lights would simply leave a lit path or streak. The L.E.D.s leave a light trail like that of an airplane in a long night exposure, light on, light off, etc. It’s always fun when something unexpected comes from the ordinary.