I went into Redmond today to buy a new Windows Phone.  I was having difficulty deciding whether I should get the Nokia 920 or the HTC 8X.  Ironically I didn’t have to make the final decision as there was a line of people out side the shop and down the road.  They told me it would take around 2 hours to get to the front of the line so I decided not to wait.

Anyway, I had my camera with my and even though it was raining I thought I’d see if I could get a picture for tonight.  So I went for a walk around the town center.  Now from past experience I’ve learnt that you need to be a little careful in the town center when you have a camera, the security people there don’t like it.  So I had the camera in a bag and pulled it out every time I saw something to shoot. (Sneaky eh?)

I walked over to Starbucks to get a coffee and there was a huge line in there too, so no coffee for me.  But when I walked outside I saw the huge Christmas tree and “Santa’s Grotto” across the road.  Now in our house we don’t start to celebrate Christmas until December 1st because Lisa’s birthday is November 28th and we like to enjoy that first.  But people seem to be celebrating Christmas here earlier and earlier these days.  All the decorations are in the shops, some people have their house’s all lit up and Redmond town center has clearly decided it is the time to be merry.

So I thought I’d shoot the tree and see if I could get a nice image.  Luckily there weren’t many people walking around (there were all in the AT&T store and Starbucks) so the sidewalks were pretty empty.  Also not many cars drove past so I had lots of chances to get a shot.  So I grabbed a few pictures and the one below was my favorite.

I liked the clouds in this picture and reflection on the wet road.  The colors came out really well in this picture too and you can just make out Santa standing in his house.  All in all I’m happy with this one.

The guys fancied some fruit tonight so they got a couple of satsuma’s and dived in (Master Chief did any way).