Posted January 9th, 2010

Lights on Main Street, Whitehorse

On a brutally cold and windy evening just before Christmas, I went out with the photography club to capture the seasonal lights in the downtown area of Whitehorse. We wrapped up the shoot (somewhat hastily) here at the lower end of Main Street, standing in one of the busiest intersections in town at Second Avenue. Though traffic was light at this time, long exposures introduced an element of unpredictability as I never knew when or where vehicles might enter the scene during an exposure. In this case, a car turned onto Main Street from First Avenue shortly after I tripped the shutter. I find it a bit serendipitous how the headlights trail seems to connect with the base of the big Christmas tree in front of the historic White Pass and Yukon Route depot. The wind-induced swaying of the tree, evident in blurring and streaking of the lights at the top, helps support the whimsical illusion that it was the tree that left the light trail. 
Pentax K10D, Tamron AF 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 DiII LD IF Macro @ 47.5 mm, 10 sec @ f/13, ISO 100