Plaza Lights II

We took advantage of Friday's spring-like weather to go on a photo safari to the Country Club Plaza with our niece, who is interested in photography. It's usually "bundle-up warm with hat and gloves" weather for a December Plaza lights photo-shoot, which makes for clumsy handling of a tripod and camera. Since it was in the 60's yesterday evening, it was sweater weather, which made for a nice, leisurely two-hour walk-about on the Plaza with cameras in hand.

We arrived about a half hour before sunset to make sure we were able to take full advantage of the twilight half-hour after sunset.  As I mentioned in my Arboretum post below, cloudy or clear, the sky photographs as a brilliant blue for about one-half hour after sunset, with the color changing minute by minute. Last night was no exception - and we even got some pink cloud reflections for a fleeting couple of minutes.

It's fascinating to see the world through the "photography eyes" of another.   My niece had ideas in her mind as to what she wanted to accomplish during the photography session.  I took the first photo below as she was  trying to capture the motion of the traffic and pedestrians with the lights in the background. Although not yet technically proficient with shutter speeds, iso's and apertures, she was able to articulate her vision perfectly and I was able to manage the technical aspects to help her express her vision.  I'm anxious to see the end result of her efforts and will post a few of her photos when I get them from her.

She loved the way the flags were stiffly flying with the Plaza lights in the background - a view I hadn't noted.

Below are a few photos I took.  It's tough to get a unique photo of the Plaza lights since the landmarks have been photographed millions of times.   This first photo is something different I tried.  It's a small section of lights on a building - kind of abstract.

Nice hanging baskets throughout the Plaza - decked out for the holiday season

The pair of bronze statues standing guard - gifts from Xian, the Chinese sister city of Kansas City - you can see a close up of one of the statues in my first Plaza lights blog entry on December 13th. 

The Time Tower - one of the most photographed towers on the Plaza

Here's the beautiful pink reflection from the sunset into the clouds - it lasted less than five minutes 

One of the Path of Gold lampposts with the Clock Tower in the background

Another beautiful tower

A few hours after we got home, the temperature dropped 35 degrees.  We had a first ever (at least that I recall) tornado watch in December with accompanying violent thunderstorms for several hours into the morning.  This, after sleet and snow a few days earlier!  I think we chose the right day to wander around the Plaza!