Imo the "wizards of winter" one can not be out done easily. When I saw it a few years ago - I couldn't get over watching it. However I would've chose anagada-davida.... Cruise U-tube and it doesnt seem as though many have the knack for coordinating that type of thing.
As for inspecting X-mas lights - I took a visit to the neighbors to figure something out today - His LED light strings seemed to be dimmed when I looked out last night. It turns out he had turned them off... But were getting low level current through the dimmer he was using.... He's OK with it but it seems sketchy to me. While there I noticed his very poor water-proofing methods, and stacks of plugs and cords... Not keen on his garden - wouldn't mind seeing it burn, (Kidding) I just hope he doesn't go out there in the rain trying to keep the mess up and running like he did last year. I have no idea why people think that having a GFI is a substitute for electrical safety.... (Industry avocates?)
Anyway, I'm not attempting to out-do the Jones' this year. But I am trying out some lo-fi effects that I have been meaning to try at my house. This is what I was doing in between posts today.
2 MR-16s with a red and green dicro filters shining from close angles on a peice of 24ga steel I cut into a snow flake (mounted with 3/4" EMT) through 12" sections of 2" EMT to create the cut-off for the spot effect. The spot shines yellow due to color blend, but due to the slightly different angles the shadows of each color are illuminated by the other color to produce red and green snowflakes over-lapping.
I'm also going to lo-fi some gobos this year.... But that will be another week-end....
(The "North Star" effect visable in this picture is barely visable as red glows from one of the security cameras -illuminator- that watches my van.....)
