It was warm, absurdly warm, for the season. I biked down to the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial just in time to set up for a time-lapse of the lighting of the Capitol Christmas Tree…or the “People’s Tree” as Speaker Boehner likes to call it.
Instead of shivering and throwing on more layers and scanning the horizon for a cup of hot chocolate I’m in a t-shirt and sweating obnoxiously. It’s a direct, downhill ride from my apartment the Capitol. Down Connecticut and then down Pennsylvania. But I had this absurd notion nagging at my sense of urgency that for once Congress would get something done on time. And that nagging pressed me to pedal a little harder than necessary…and now I can’t stop sweating.
Anyways, this was the spot I’d imagined in my head to stage for the lighting ceremony. The memorial is slightly elevated, giving a clear view of the tree, the growing crowd, the Capitol and the foot and vehicular traffic. Lots of moving parts makes for a better time-lapse. I wasn’t the only person with the idea, another guy was set up next to me. But he was using a much faster interval, I was shooting every 10 seconds and he appeared to be shooting every 4 seconds. He shot for the same time I did so I can only imagine how many exposures he pulled out of that (I pulled 300).
The speeches started on time, and for the most part weren’t of the traditional garrulous variety that so often delay the event itself. The tree is massive (73-feet-tall to be exact), and gorgeous as always. They trucked it in from the Centennial State…and by ‘they’ I mean former Colorado Sen. Ben “Nighthorse” Campbell who trucked that thing across the country over 23-days. The tree comes from the White River National Forest, think Vail.
Back to the time-lapse.
There’s more movement and flicker than I wanted. I stepped up the ISO in hopes of minimizing shifting of the exposure (that’s ultimately what causes flicker). I enjoy shooting at sunset for added dynamism in scenes, but the only technique I know is using aperture priority to change the exposure with the loss of light. One day I’ll figure it out. The other problem is a mystery. There appears to be a slight shifting in the early part of the scene…the only explanation I can think of comes from people walking nearby and slightly changing the standing of the tripod. But that’s a bit ludicrous.
As for the cool aspects of this scene. Watch early on as the crowd grows around the tree. There’s also good cloud movement as the sun sets, coupled with office lights in the Capitol turning on. At :05 they take down the flag flying over the House as their session for the day ends. You’ll notice the lantern under the statue Freedom stays alit throughout as the Senate was still in session voting on a defense spending measure. At :20 the tree is finally lit and then through the rest of the scene there’s a flurry of activity as the crowd disperses.
I would have kept shooting…but it was soooo hot.
The World is Our District 