They Came From Outer Space!

I was walking out in the desert in 29 Palms last night, out behind my house, just before sunset.  It was a beautiful night with the rocks of Joshua Tree lit up by the late afternoon desert sun.  Suddenly I heard a strange, high pitched humming sound... not loud, but like nothing I had ever heard before.  Out of the corner of my eye I caught what seemed to be a quick flash of light.  Thankfully I had my iPhone with me, which I quickly grabbed and captured this unbelievable photo (underline unbelievable!).  There were multicolored circular objects moving across the sky at incredible speeds!  Maybe those folks in Roswell aren't so crazy after all??!  I ran in the house to get my shotgun and tell my wife.  When we came back outside, they were gone!!

OK, back to reality.  Here's the true story.  My sister over at Lap Dog Knits and I heard about a neighborhood in Fullerton that does something really unique for the holiday:  they hang hundreds of lighted globes from parkway trees.  We decided it would make a great photo challenge, so last night we took our cameras and tripods over and clicked away!

Here's a good shot of the lighted tree globes.  It looked liked this for blocks
and blocks... very cool!

The globes appear to be floating around a tree wrapped with Christmas
lights in this shot.

Lap Dog Knits hard at work!

Lap Dog Knits showed me how to get some great bokeh... by the way, do
you pronounce it bo-kay, or bo-ka?"

Here's a close-up of a mystery globe.  If you look closely, it looks like a bunch of clear plastic cups with lights inside.  The lights flash different colors, so it creates quite an effect as you see hundreds of globes lighting up and changing colors.  Many are really high in the trees (15 - 20 feet).

Macro shot of outdoor ornament.

Frosty!

So, what happens when you move your camera while photographing a mystery globe?  Here's what:

 Kind of a cool effect.  I think it adds to the whole science fiction kitsch theme for this post!  Now that I think about it, the mystery globes do kind of look like eyeballs!

Linking to Macro Monday.  Check out this site for some really great macro photography.  Also, check out Lap Dog Knits ... I'm guessing she will soon be posting some great "mystery globe" shots!  Happy New Year!