Update 12/2021 – Go here to find images for recent years
An Entire Performance in a Single Image
This image of the 2018 Living Christmas Tree at First Baptist Church in Huntsville, Alabama was inspired by a series of images from photographer Stephen Wilkes called Day to Night.
The Living Christmas Tree
The Living Christmas Tree has been First Baptist’s Christmas gift to the community for over 30 years. The program is presented by The Living Christmas Tree Choir and Orchestra as well as guest artists and hundreds of volunteers. The singers stand on a 30 foot tree decorated with
7500 pieces of artificial greenery and over 13,000 LED lights. Performances include a variety of choral music along with performances from various guest artists.
Day to Night
Stephen Wilkes is a photographer known for a series of images called “Day to Night”. For these images, Stephen spends 15 to 18 hours taking multiple photographs of the same location from a fixed vantage point. He then blends those photos together to create a single image that encompasses the events of an entire day. A typical photograph captures a single moment in time, by blending images together, Stephen is able to create images that capture an entire day.
The Image
In this image I attempted to capture the entire Living Christmas Tree experience by capturing not only parts of the performance but also the room and the people in it.
The First Baptist Sanctuary features two large stained glass windows on either side. These windows are amazing during the day, but their beauty is lost as the sun sets. I included one of these windows in the image by photographing the scene early in the day and blending that image with other images from the performances.
The Living Christmas Tree is First Baptist Church’s gift to the community so I wanted to include the community as well. The position I chose allowed me to see the faces of the crowd during the singing of Christmas Carols which I included in the image.
In addition to the stained glass and people, as you look around the room you will see scenes from many different parts of the program. There are singers with candles, angels, the guest guitarist, soloist and dancers, all from different parts of the program, The pastor is there giving his meditation along with the narrator weaving his story. The tree with the cross is from the Hallelujah Chorus finale.
Take some time to look around, there may even be a surprise or two…
This image was allot of fun to put together and I hope you enjoy looking at it as much as I enjoyed creating it!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
