After Christmas

The week after Christmas always seems a bit awkward. The big excitement of Christmas is done, and kids are still out of school. Lots of people are out of work (except me) until after New Years too. It's also part of the actual "12 days of Christmas," but instead of giving someone I know a bunch of birds I tried to get out and take some pictures when I had some free time. One place I visited was the Arkansas State Capitol, which was still decorated in thousands of bright lights. Here are those lights reflected in my car's windshield:



A few blocks down Capitol Avenue is the city of Little Rock's Christmas tree. This was taken on a windy night, which caused the lights to turn into colorful squiggly lines.



And a wide view looking down Capitol Avenue, of the tree and of a sculpture called "Helios."



I stuck the fisheye lens on the camera and scrambled to get this shot, looking up through the center of the sculpture:



And then on another night, I ended up getting this shot of a lonely Christmas tree shining out over a quiet city:



Happy New Years, everyone!

Little Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree

The other night I had some free time after getting the kids to bed, and decided to try to get some pictures of the Christmas decorations in downtown Little Rock. There was a bit of fog, which I had hoped would add some atmosphere to the pictures (and also make things less crowded). The first stop was at the intersection of Capitol and Main Streets, where the city has an electronic Christmas tree, a Hanukkah menorah, ornaments and Santa's sleigh.



Lights adorned the trees along Capitol and Main, and despite the weather there was a steady stream of people going and having their pictures taken next to all the decorations.



And a closer view of the tree - here you can see the fog trying to cover up the top of the Simmons Building in the background.



And another view, with a car heading west down Capitol Avenue...



I also headed down Capitol Avenue, and stopped to get this view looking back east towards Capitol and Main streets.



And a bit further down was this view looking straight up at the Simmons Tower and the Regions Building. The fog was starting to clear, but it was still clinging to the top of the Simmons Tower.



The fog was just about gone by the time I got to the Arkansas State Capitol, which still looked nice with all the holiday lights on the building. 



And one last shot, looking up at the Capitol building from along Capitol Avenue. Yes, this was taken while standing in the middle of the street, but it was almost 11 PM and there was no traffic out there...