Holiday Tree Photography by Kozmic Dreams

One of my favorite things about the winter is decorating the holiday tree. I have been decorating my very own tree since I was 14 years old. Before that, I did most of the decorating of my parents' tree. My tree is a celebration of nature and life. Therefore, the only types of ornaments on it are animals, plants and snowmen. However, Mr. and Mrs. Claus always adorn the top of the tree.

As much of an environmentalist as I am, I still love to get a real tree. There's nothing like the aroma of a fresh pine tree! Because I think of each tree's sacrifice as a special thing, I even save a small, clear plastic box of needles from every Christmas tree. I make the box of needles into an ornament and they are now hung on the small artificial tree to the left of the main one, so that every year, each past tree is still a part of each upcoming year. I used to hang them on the main tree before I got the extra tree. Luckily, my community offers recycling of trees, and they are turned into woodchips after the holidays.

Here is a movie showing the lights in action. Lyle is to the right, doing an impressive job of staying still.

December 12, 2017. Various exposure settings from 1/2 hour before sunrise to 1/2 hour after sunset.

December 12, 2017, with Lyle. The first one is my favorite. I also made a black and white version with certain elements colorized.

These are also with Lyle. The first photo is my favorite. I also made a specially-colorized black and white version.

November 29, 2016. Various exposure settings. The sky wasn't blue enough to get the nice effect I got last year just after sunset. Lyle snuck into the second to last photo.

I discovered that the best lighting conditions for photographing the tree are just after sunset and just before sunrise. A blue tint comes in through my blinds behind the tree which creates a nice effect. This time, I managed to also take a video so one can see the full effect of the lighting, as there are over 1500 lights on the tree. This series begins just before sunrise, with a few photos during the day, and the rest at sunset.

Here is this year's Christmas tree. These photos were taken at night with different camera settings. The first animation was made with photos taken at ISO 400 at f/8 for 1.6 seconds. The second animation was made with photos taken at ISO 400 at f/3.5 for 1/4 second. There are two differences this year with the tree: 1) There is no tinsel (I think I've put tinsel on every tree I've ever had); 2) My vintage blown glass ornaments are not on it. I have a new metal "tree" that I used to display those ornaments on this year.

Just before I took down the tree, I decided to try taking a video of it. I had tried taking one at night last month, but it didn't turn out well because the camera couldn't focus. In this video, the tree isn't in the greatest of shape anymore because the weight of the ornaments caused the branches to droop. Some of the ornaments have turned around too. I still decided to include the video since it shows close-ups of some of the ornaments that one can't see in the regular photographs.

Here is this year's Christmas tree, photographed in the daylight and at night. I also made an animation from each photo shoot.

Here are a variety of photographs of this year's Christmas tree taken with different camera settings under the same lighting at night on December 13, 2008. This is the first year in quite a while that I didn't use garland as part of the decoration. Also for the first time ever, I used 5 strands of LED lights that perform 16 different effects. Unfortunately, they only came in red, blue and green, so I also used a few strands of multicolored incandescent lights so I would also have yellow and magenta in the mix. The LED lights are underneath most of the branches, so they perform their effects "inside the tree" while the other strands flash on the "outside" creating a multi-layered effect. The star, an antique from the 50's given to me by my grandma, also flashes independently, although I chose all of these photos for the fact that the star was on. I tried to capture the lighting effect with an animation, but nothing compares to seeing it in person.

Christmas 2005

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Here is this year's Christmas tree. I think this is one of the most full trees I've had. It was just recently unwrapped since I got it the day after Thanksgiving and the branches were packed closely together. I didn't even realize it was this wide until I started decorating it. I photographed it using varying shutter speeds. The last two photos were modified in Photoshop.

I love to pack my tree with lights. I put about 10 strands on this tree, all independently flashing. It's one big light show. I wish I could capture the experience better, but you can get an idea of what it's like by watching my movie...

Click here to see a movie of the tree and its flashing light display.

Christmas 2003

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Here is this year's Christmas tree. Brian and I pose for pictures before attending our 10-year high school reunion.

Christmas 2002

Here is a photo of this year's tree during the daylight.

Christmas 2001

Above are two photos of the tree, one at night and one during the day. The next two photos are of a snowman I built in the backyard. The last photo is Sweeties wearing a halo. She passed away in the spring of 2004. My mom used this picture on her Christmas cards during the year of 2001.

Christmas 2000

This was one of my first experiences with digital photography. I had forgotten I took these photographs until I was looking in my backup files for an old picture of Frank and accidentally came across them. They are taken with the free camera I got from joining Earthlink, but some of them really turned out interesting.

Christmas 1999

This set of photos are of my Japanese maple tree in the front yard. This is the first and only time I have put lights up outside.

Christmas 1998

Darwin and Sweeties.

This year's tree was sprayed with fake snow. The photo isn't very good though.

Christmas 1995

I was now in my own home, so this time I have a larger tree displayed in the living room. The other two pictures are some icicles against a crisp winter sky.

Christmas 1992?

Christmas 1990

Here is another tabletop tree. This one is a lot fuller and shapely. Here is a snowman I made in our front yard.

Christmas 1989

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I think this is the first snowman I built all on my own. The second picture is of mother and daughter Soft Coated Wheaten Terriers, Heather O' Halloween and Sweeties Mc Pea. Unfortunately, both are now deceased. The third picture is of the first Christmas tree of my very own. It was in my bedroom at my parents' house. It was such a cute, tiny little tree that it could fit on top of my desk!