But is it a tree?

[Phil Light]

Here are a couple of pictures of the Indianapolis Soldiers and Sailors Monument. It was built after the Civil War to commemorate Indiana soldiers who have died in war. Every year around Christmas they string it with thousands of lights and call it the largest Christmas tree in the world. Some people have a problem referring to it as a tree. If you ever watched an Indianapolis Colts night game, the network always shows several shots of this "tree".

C & C welcome.

[crazyea]

The plastic thing in my living room isn't a tree either. The point is that for a brief time ever year it symbolizes a tree.

[DegasGoneDigital]

Thats a nice picture, thanks for sharing

[TMR Design]

Very nice Jeff.. great angle on that second one.

[Keiffer]

Nice shot. Now show us what it looks like at night, Lit.:-)

[Phil Light]

Nice shot. Now show us what it looks like at night, Lit.:-)

I KNEW somebody was going to make me go back and do that! :D Give me a couple of days.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

[Miyagi-san]

lol, yes the night shot is now mandatory :p

[Phil Light]

Nice shot. Now show us what it looks like at night, Lit.:-)

lol, yes the night shot is now mandatory :p

Alright, alright! Here are the shots that should be taken of The World's Largest Christmas Tree. :D

When I took the daytime pictures I decided to climb to the observation deck at the top... All 32 flights, 330 steps, 230 feet... With all of my camera gear. Interesting fact: It turns out that the weight of camera gear increases proportionately with number of steps climbed.

BTW - suomi7777, don't know if you are originally from Germany, but this monument was designed in the late 1800s by one of Germany's formost architects of national monuments, Bruno Schmitz. There is a very good article about it online http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/kade/soldiers.html.

One more interesting tidbit: The total height of the monument is 284 feet, 6 inches, 15 feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty.

[Miyagi-san]

interesting...i'm US military over here for my second tour, but am brushing up on my German history...I'll have to check out that link. good info!

great shots, #1 is cool cause we get to see the tree, but I think #2 is my fav....great perspective and lighting is spot-on. nice!

[Phil Light]

interesting...i'm US military over here for my second tour, but am brushing up on my German history...I'll have to check out that link. good info!

great shots, #1 is cool cause we get to see the tree, but I think #2 is my fav....great perspective and lighting is spot-on. nice!

Thank you. For some reason I like that angle too. After reviewing the daytime version of that, I was curious to see what it would look like from the same perspective at night. Since it was so dark, obviously I had to mount the camera on a tripod, "flatten" the tripod as much as I could and then lie down underneath it to frame the picture. I'm sure I looked like an idiot to the crowd that was milling around. :) Oh well... whatever it takes to get the shot!

I almost forgot... Those who serve in the military have my utmost respct! Thank you! We can't say that enough.

[Keiffer]

Absolutely love the second shot! The angle that you got it from looks fantastic. if I were you I would play with that in ps to see if there's anything you can do to maybe improve on the shot. But the composition Rocks! Thanks for going back out and taking night shots for us.

[Phil Light]

Absolutely love the second shot! The angle that you got it from looks fantastic. if I were you I would play with that in ps to see if there's anything you can do to maybe improve on the shot. But the composition Rocks! Thanks for going back out and taking night shots for us.

Thanks! Good idea. Except for a small white balance tweak the second shot is straight out of the camera. I'd like to play with it in PS to bring the lights out a lot more. I'm not quite sure how to go about that.

[Miyagi-san]

I'd like to play with it in PS to bring the lights out a lot more. I'm not quite sure how to go about that.

It's an awesome photo....and I'm definitely planning on "having a go" at it in CS2 when I get home from work....I'll post it if you don't mind? I'm sure someone will beat me to it though lol.

[Miyagi-san]

here's my attempt...a little overdone i think, as the top of the statue is a bit blown out. kinda tough, a little less sharpening helped that but then i lost radiance from the smallest lights...

i adjusted levels, a little brightness/contrast (but not very much at all), shadows/highlights, then kind of tweaked curves just a little bit, and then a bit of unsharp mask.

http://i107.photobucket.com/albums/m296/wolfgang7/Monument-07.jpg

[Phil Light]

here's my attempt...a little overdone i think, as the top of the statue is a bit blown out. kinda tough, a little less sharpening helped that but then i lost radiance from the smallest lights...

i adjusted levels, a little brightness/contrast (but not very much at all), shadows/highlights, then kind of tweaked curves just a little bit, and then a bit of unsharp mask.

That does look good. I haven't had time to work with it yet, but I wonder if adding a little bit of a blur to the lights would make it better or worse? Hmmm...

[TMR Design]

Very nice Jeff. I love it!

[Phil Light]

Very nice Jeff. I love it!

Thanks! You guys will have to watch the Colts play Monday night, December 18. I guarantee you'll see a shot of this from the blimp or by the ground video crew or both. It's about a five to ten minute walk from the RCA Dome.