These photos from the Bull Run Festival of Lights are far fewer in number than intended. It turns out that trying to take photos of lights from the back seat of a moving car is, um, challenging.
So, these aren’t great and there were many that were even worse.
Still, the lights are pretty to see and it’s a worthwhile, if expensive, visit.
Click an image below to enlarge it or view the set on flickr.
This set of photos is briefer than I expected. It seems that using a tripod at Town Center is Against The Rules.
I got off one sequence of photos of some trees and was setting up for the Christmas Tree when a security guard approached me and told me I couldn’t take pictures.
I was surprised since I’ve taken photos at Town Center lots of times without being hassled. He clarified. It wasn’t taking pictures that was forbidden. It was using a tripod that was forbidden.
Politely, I asked why. He didn’t have a reason. It was the Rules. If I wanted to use a tripod I had to obtain written permission from the management office. Of course they were closed and only open during business hours.
The guard was polite. He was just doing his job, however stupid the rules he was told to enforce are so harassing him would do no good, but I couldn’t help how people were supposed to get good photos of lights at night without a tripod. Of course, not being a photographer, he had no clue.
The only reason I can figure is that they are concerned about tripods being a problem when the area is crowded. But, the area wasn’t crowded. It was surprisingly not crowded for a week before Christmas. The on\y person likely to be impeded by my tripod was me.
So far as I can tell this is just another rule made by people to make themselves feel powerful. Being a blanket rule it serves no purpose other than to annoy photographers who wanted to show how pretty the lights were. Now instead of posting that people should go see the lights, I’m posting that RTC has an annoying, arbitrary policy that does nothing but aggravate people. Had it been crowded, I’d have understood. I wouldn’t even have tried because the crowds would be as annoying to me as I would be to them.
So, unless you plan to shoot handheld (don’t know whether using a monopod would get you shut down or not), stay away from RTC. Or try to stop in at the management nazis’ office to get a permit. I may still try just to find out the process, but I’m betting they won’t give them out.
Click an image below to enlarge it or view the set on flickr.
I don’t think I’ve ever given so much attention to an odd year election as I did this year. We have an election every year in Virginia, seemingly whether we need one or not and this year it was the house of delegates, state senate, county board of supervisors, school board and some other local stuff.
It seems kind of odd that I would be paying attention since my delegate and senator were running unopposed and I like the job that both of them have been doing. But, there were other races that I found I cared about and the results I got were a mixed bag.
It was great to see Delegates Caputo, Englin and Poisson get re-elected. And we got rid of one socially regressive senator (O’Brien) and replaced him with someone much more progressive (Barker). This was particularly gratifying because the Virginia Republican Party put out these anti-gay attack ads right at the end of the campaign.
Unfortunately it looks like Senator Cucinelli will hold on to his seat though by only the slimmest of margins. It was so close I suppose they have to do a recount but the odds of it changing probably aren’t good.
I don’t have any kids but I was happy to see Stephen Hunt get voted out of office on he school board. He used his position to launch an anti-gay attack a couple of years ago and we sure don’t need that in Fairfax County.
So, it was a mixed bag in that we didn’t win them all but we didn’t lose any ground and we made some progress.
Perhaps the most interesting race was the Devolites Davis/Petersen race. I wasn’t thrilled with either candidate and had no idea how it would come out but I expected it would be close. Turns out Petersen won easily. The only real advantage I see is that his win gives the democrats control of the senate and hopefully that will put an end to any anti-gay legislation out of Richmond, at least for 2008.
Here are some (unfortunately not very good) photos from Punkin Chunkin. Kirsten organized this outing and it was an interesting, if cold event.
None of use were quite dressed warmly enough and we also arrived a little, well, a lot later than intended thanks to a party the night before. After factoring in travel time and waiting over an hour in traffic to park, we only had about four hours at the event itself.
I’m not really sure why but it is seriously cool to watch pumpkins hurled into the sky. The range of designs was quite varied from air cannons to slingshots. The air cannons shot the furthest but usually launched the pumpkins so quickly I never even saw them.
If you have a free day next year, dress warmly and head on over! It’s an event that gives an outlet for creative, mechanically inclined people that have way too much time on their hands.
Click an image below to enlarge it or view the set on flickr.
I had never really noticed Cox Farm on Route 123 even though I’d driven past it countless times. Kirsten suggested a short photo shoot there and off we went.
It turned out to to be a fun place to shoot with the variety of shapes, colors and textures all about. We probably could have stayed at least another hour but we had to leave to meet a group in Tysons Corner to catch a movie.
Check it out if you are in the area. I think I’m going to be headed back for some apple cider.
Click an image below to enlarge it or view the set on flickr.
