Wayne D's Blog

Lesson for today, don't try to use Super Heavy Duty batteries in your digital camera, they won't work. I decided a week or so ago to go out and take some pictures of the Christmas lights in my neighbourhood with my digital camera. I tried holding the camera as steadily as possible but no luck, the pictures looked slightly surreal, but not in a good way. Using the flash also produced less than satisfactory results. I wanted to borrow the tripod from work but it was unavailable because someone was using it for legitimate business purposes. Finally last night it came home to roost so I brought it home today with the express purpose of finishing my 2006 Christmas Light project. By the time I got myself organized and realized the Super heavy Duty batteries were a no go it was 9:30 so I had to go to the local combo gas station and variety store to buy some alkaline batteries. They wanted over 10 bucks for a 4 pack so I decided to make do with two Duracell's. I don't know about other digital cameras but mine is a battery vampire, it drains them dry in no time.
It was raining tonight so after putting on a sweater under my rain shell, digging out my grey acrylic wool hat, mounting my camera on the tripod and covering the camera with a Ziploc bag, I grabbed a flashlight and set out. You can see the results on my Flickr photstream. After the first ten pictures the camera started complaining about the battery level but I pushed it until it gave out completely. When I got home after walking around my neighbourhood for and hour and a half my pants were soaked, the water was leaking through my boots, the water had begun to soak through my coat, I had started to develop a blister on one heel from my not so walking friendly winter boots but I think it was worth it.
I don't know about your neighbourhood but in my neighbourhood there were long stretches where people hadn't bothered to put up Christmas lights. Christmas has lost much of the Christian connotations in our society and has become a secular holiday. I wonder why people don't want to put up some lights to help chase the long dark nights of December away.