Festive Lights, Santana Row – San Jose, California

Despite just being a lifestyle center, which is a fancy word for 21st century outdoor shopping center, Santana Row does a very good job. It combines retail, restaurants a hotel and many apartment buildings for an urban, city like feel. In fact, I think it feels more like a city than downtown San Jose. While it spans only several blocks in both dimensions, when in the center, it does a real good simulation of a quasi-European city.

Here’s a wide-angle cinematic of the central plaza. It consists of a small wine bar and an ice creme store surrounded by urban park like amenities. I especially like it for the symmetrical hanging lights, which looks to festive to me, in a old-world kind of way.

I shot this with the Canon G7X Mark II, however I also shot the scene with my Olympus. I was surprised by how different the default white balances were between the two cameras. The Olympus was a lot warmer with yellow-orange tones. While I generally like it warmer, for this scene, I prefer the cool blue-green rendition of the Canon. Ultimately, when you shoot in RAW, this may not matter as much, but it’s an interesting observation, nevertheless.