I did not take this photograph, however, I hope you enjoy it - and the story ......

After a lot of patient waiting, this shot was finally gotten, as desired.

Yes, one tree has red lights. No, they were not colored. While the image may s...tand on its own, there actually is an interesting story behind the lights, and why one tree stands out.

This is the astronaut memorial grove at the Johnson Space Center. Every astronaut that dies (regardless of cause) has a tree planted in his or her honor. The project was created in 1996 with the original dedication honoring the astronauts killed in the Challenger accident of 1986. Since that time, a new tree has been planted for each astronaut that has died.

When Pete Conrad died, his close friend and colleague, Buzz Aldrin, gave the dedication at the ceremony. In his speech, Aldrin, speaking on behalf of Conrad, related that while Pete was one of the shortest astronauts, he didn't want his tree to be the shortest. He wanted his tree to stand out, to be the most colorful. Pete's motto was: "When you can’t be good, be colorful." Aldrin charged then-JSC Director George Abbey to light the trees each Christmas season, and to make Conrad's tree stand out. They have fulfilled his wish each year since then.

In order to preserve the colors and tones throughout the image, 4 separate exposures were used- two for the sky, one for the actual lights, and one for the glow on the trees and ground. The sky consists of two layers, with the lighter of the two on top. The "Multiply" blending mode was applied to it to make the resulting sky pop. No further enhancement was done to the sky. The glow received a very slight levels tweak and the lights received a very slight red color boost, with any resulting red color abberations in painted out of the white lights using a layer mask.

The whole thing was assembled by hand in Photoshop, and layer masks were used to bring out each individual piece.