I rode the Chicago CTA Christmas Train yesterday for the first time and it is so fun, a lovely Holiday thing to do in Chicago. This holiday tradition was started in 1992 and ever since the decorations have been getting more and more elaborate.
Santa rides outdoors with his sleigh and the interior and exterior is covered with colorful lights and decorations. There is Christmas music playing and elves hand out candy canes as you step in the train.
The train runs daily on all the different train lines, check out the http://www.transitchicago.com/holidaytrain/ for the schedule.
All of my pics were shot with my Nikon D600 and a zoom lens on manual mode. Manual mode is important for these sort of pics at night because the meter can get thrown off with the contrast, so I set my shutter to a shutter speed of 1/60 to stop the action, a high ISO ( but the lowest I can manage, around ISO 3200- 4000) and my lowest aperture available with my lens- which was f4.5 for most of these shots. If my pics were coming out too underexposed, I increase the ISO, or lower my shutter speed if available. Slightly underexposed images are fine with me in this situation as the details I am looking for are in the lights, and I use noise reduction software in post processing. More of my night photography tips here
What’s your favorite holiday tradition in Chicago?