The 2009 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree

Taken today around a quarter past 5. Looking back at past trees, this one isn't as large as 2006's, but I think it's the most magnificent since I began photographing them in 2005. Walking past it, it seems so much fuller than its predecessors.



I don't know if this is a good barometer of the local economy, since it might have been from the cold weather, but there definitely weren't as many people at Rockefeller Center this evening. I had no trouble at all getting into the best spot. Even walking down Fifth Avenue afterward, there weren't the usual thick crowds of tourists.

And arriving this morning at Rockefeller Center

This was the scene at Rockefeller Center at 8 this morning:



I presume they've put it up already; I'll see tomorrow morning.

You can read the tree's story here.

The 2008 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree

Yet another beautiful tree. I took this on December 5th, at 4:49 p.m. when night was falling on Manhattan. Unlike previous years (here, here, here, here and here), where I rotated pictures to make the tree straight, this year I had the great luck to take a picture remarkably level. It's ever so slightly off that I didn't bother doing anything. There's a little grain in the image, but I didn't have time to try all the different ISO and exposure settings.

The morning before, I ran into some new friends who I've actually been seeing most mornings at Rockefeller Center. (Again, click the picture for the larger image.)

Merry Christmas!

A happy holiday to everyone who celebrates today. And even to those who don't, may their days have been merry and bright anyway.

Here are a couple of pictures of the 2007 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The second turned out pretty well, except for Christmas Eve's late afternoon sunlight impacting on the star. The first was the best of several shots, all taken on the night of December 21st, my only chance this year to take nighttime shots of the tree. In previous years, I had time to go through my camera's range of ISO settings for an optimum shot. This year I could only rely on automatic detection, and afterward some manual touch-up of colors and gamma. I like to use GIMP for very fine rotation (fractions of a degree as necessary) and Irfanview for resizing. GIMP is by far more powerful, but I find Irfanview faster for quick jobs like cropping.





You can find my previous pictures here, here, here and here. The nighttime shot in the second link is my favorite: the image is sharp, and since it was 11 p.m. at night, I could take my time to get a good angle. The first picture in the third link is my favorite as a scene, admittedly an imperfect shot, but the people skating and the snowflake projected onto the GE Building give it a wonderful Christmas flavor.



Though I didn't get a memorable picture this year, it's not the fault of my new camera. My old Kodak broke after a couple of years, and I replaced it with a Canon 570IS. I've been extremely happy with it, and Amazon has a great price. Hint: if you buy it via the link, I get a small referral fee. Think of it as worthwhile if you do decide to buy it, since I would have helped reduce your search cost, namely time spent in examining cameras and deciding.

I needed a new camera fairly quickly in time for Christmas pictures: something relatively inexpensive in case it's lost or stolen, that takes SD cards, and that uses AA batteries. Cameras with built-in rechargeable batteries are usually thinner, but when I'm overseas, I may not always be able to recharge. Also, though lithium-ion batteries are good for many more shots than alkalines, I've been known to take several hundred photos in a single afternoon. My previous camera took AAs, and I habitually kept a sizable stash of fresh batteries on me.

The Powershot 570IS, 7.1 megapixels (up to 3072x2304 pixels) with image stabilization, is rated very well in reviews, so I decided to chance it. Most cameras in this class have only a 3x optical zoom. The 570IS has a 4x optical zoom, very nice for getting a little bit closer. I've been extremely impressed with the picture quality. which has three ranges: normal, fine and superfine. The difference is that with a 2-gig SD card, it can store 2047 pictures, 1006, or 632, respectively. Most people would do great with "fine," which is the factory default. The latter isn't significantly better, but I use it anyway; I never know when I want to use the full resolution of a picture and need it to be as clear as possible.

There are a host of features that most people will never use, but it's a very versatile camera. Up to ISO 1600 (although "noise" will creep into pictures above ISO 400), and several different scene settings. They're all intuitive enough that I don't expect to crack open the user's manual, ever. So far I've been able to figure everything out. The menus are fairly clean in layout.

Another picture of the tree

As I said last night, I'm not entirely happy with the pictures I took of this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. Here's another one that I touched up a little, rotating 0.4 degrees counterclockwise and cropping appropriately to center the tree. I also adjusted the gamma to 2.0, so you can imagine how dark the original was.



It was no problem to try different ISO settings, but with all the jostling and competition for space, it was really hard to get a good shot via automatic focus. Maybe a late Christmas present to myself will be a new camera.

Merry Christmas, and God bless us, every one

I had a mostly wonderful time in the city tonight. The 4 p.m. service at St. Thomas Episcopal was too long and drawn out, particularly with the (male) choir apparently lacking most of its adults. While they were good from a technical standpoint, one can generally take only so much of prepubescent singing, and it's compounded when the hymns are boring. I also would have sped up the traditional hymns by 10% or even 25%. I would respectfully suggest to the music director that we imitate Luciano Pavarotti, whose famous recording of "Adeste Fideles" was done triumphantly.

Had my two good friends not gone, I wouldn't have either. I'd have preferred going to the Christmas Eve service at other friends' home church, the Real Life Church of the Nazarene in Danbury, Connecticut. Still, it was good to meet up with my two friends. We went out after dinner to Rue 57, basically an overpriced French-style bistro that, for that very reason, is a fashionable choice for dining. I think I'd have been just as happy with a burger and Heinekens at TGI Friday's as with steak and Chambord/champagne cocktails.

On our way back to Grand Central, my friends and I stopped by Rockefeller Center, where we braved the unbelievably immense crowds so that I could take a few more pictures of its 2006 Christmas tree. The first is from a few weeks ago, and the second is from tonight.





You can see my pictures of last year's tree here and here.

Last year's tree was beautiful, but I think this year's was even better. If you compare the pictures, you'll see that this year's is fatter and a truly magnificent specimen. The camera perspective doesn't make a difference: I took the pictures from virtually the same spots at the skating rink's east railing, in all cases trying to photograph the tree head-on from the east, centering it against the GE Building behind it. Cropping makes this year's tree look larger because it's a bigger part of the picture, but judge the tree's size in relation to the GE Building, or Prometheus below.

However, I much prefer last year's pictures. This year the crowds made it impossible to get a clean shot, and I just couldn't get a picture that had both sharpness and vivid colors.

Merry Christmas, and God bless us, every one. Especially Jay. Maybe he was an angel sent to test men, or maybe he was just a man down on his luck. He didn't ask for anything and in fact seemed oblivious to our passing by, but I atypically decided to help him directly. Usually I give to the Salvation Army and other charities, which can ensure the money goes for food and shelter, but tonight I felt different. Maybe it was the sight of someone who'd still be on the street come Christmas morning, while I headed to a warm home after a full meal.

The 2005 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree

I wasn't content with the pictures I took Friday, especially with the crowds making it difficult to get a clear shot. Nor was I content with most I took today, but aside from someone's shadowy head in the bottom left, this one turned out very nicely.



The picture was slightly off, so I rotated it 0.4 degrees clockwise. After shaving off the uneven edges and trimming further, I finished with a 1875x2500 image that produces very vivid 4x6 prints. (E-mail me if you would like it for your own, I think it's quite a good photo, especially with capturing Prometheus in the nighttime colors.) Ideally I should bring my tripod and attempt a truly level picture, but it's cumbersome to bring on the train, and a full setup would be a nuisance to everyone else in Rockefeller Center.

Here's a picture of the 2004 Christmas tree that I took with my camera phone. Not too good, of course, but it was a fun night. After some friends and I had gone clubbing in midtown, we stopped by Rockefeller Center to say hello to a friend's friend, a graveyard shift security guard. It was nearly 3 a.m., so the tree's lights weren't on.



Blogging will have to be light tonight, as I got home late and had so much to do. Thankfully the ride home wasn't bumpy this time. Friday night, the Metro-North train rocked violently for several seconds on one section of track, which happens and ordinarily doesn't bother me. However, it occurred while I was listening to a particularly trance-ish Orbital track, and the combination gave me a sudden headache.