The Christmas Train

A small switch engine with the Christmas Train in tow.

I decided to run a train around the base of a small Christmas tree this year. Rather than wait until the Christmas Rush, I stopped by a local hobby shop and picked up enough track to make a small circle of the appropriate size this weekend. The newer tracks are much nicer than what we had when I was kid. The solid roadbed is built-in and the connectors actually hold the track firmly together. It went together quickly and I spent a few minutes "testing" the whole setup. It's going to work very well.

While I had a moving target I decided to shoot a few short video clips. I hadn't used the video editor in Photoshop CC yet and this looked like a good chance to give it a try. Normally, it takes a while to learn something new in Photoshop, but this was unusually straight forward.. Here is a combination of three clips from the iPhone. (For a higher resolution version that opens in a new window,  click here.)

Notice how the brightness changes as the white car goes by. That is the iPhone auto-exposure system reacting to the sudden change. The shakes have nothing to do with the phone. That was me trying to hold things steady without a mini-tripod.

Not great art and nothing to write home about, but it only took a few minutes to put together. I'm pleased enough with the simple video tools in Photoshop CC that I won't be upgrading my video editing software. Now I guess I'll go back and read the manual.

GS