As I mentioned last week’s post, Khürt Williams start this awesome new photo challenge series, the 52 Week Smartphone Challenge, which is described in the link. The concept is fairly straightforward and inspired by the great quality cameras that are in smartphones these days: shoot something that goes with the them and pingback/tag it to have it show up under the challenge.
The second week’s theme is ‘Rule of Thirds’: “You already know what the Rule of Thirds is, now is the time to use it”
Holiday Lights Galore!
This photo is one that I shot over the last week, as kind of a drive-by image. My wife had mentioned that there was this awesome display on a side street. Well, we found it!! The big, bright red lights are flood lights for their mini-ice skating rink! I took this shot with my iPhone 11Pro Max using the NeuralCam app. This app has become one of my favorite photography tools!
Welcome to week 36 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge. After last week’s very lighthearted topic of Balloons (great suggestion, Debbie!), I knew exactly what I wanted to do for this week.
Of course, the holiday season made it pretty obvious to me that this week’s challenge them has to be Lights. During this time of year, lights are every where to offset the shortest days of the year and the long nights that come with them. As we approach the Winter Solstice in the Northern hemisphere, these lights fill us with a sense of joy, as all is clear and all is bright.
Your challenge is to provide some interesting photography of lights in any kind of environment. Capturing lights can be a challenge, but with a little trial and error, you should be able to get the result that you want to achieve. An example of experimenting a bit is this long exposure that I took a couple of years ago:
Nubble at Night
This image of Nubble lighthouse on Cape Neddick, Maine, was taken during the holiday season when the entire complex is lighted beautifully.
For those who’d like to participate in this weekly challenge, the rules are the following:
Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!
Have fun going out there (or staying indoors) and finding the light! I’m looking forward to the great images that you’ll come up with!
Technical Details
This image was captured with a Canon EOS 5D MkIII using an EF 17-40mm f/4L lens. Exposure settings were at f/18 and 131 seconds with 100 ISO. This long exposure was done using a timer.
Thursday night, my wife and I went to visit Tower Hill Botanic Garden to see their current exhibit ‘Winter Reimagined’. The Botanic Garden is always among our favorite places to visit, as it affords wonderful strolling along the many paths among the trees or through the systematic garden. Winter is typically an indoor season for Tower Hill, as lush trees and plants grow in the conservatories, where the climate is in the subtropical range.
However, this Winter visit, we spent our time mostly outdoors.
Beautifully lit trees and paths
The trees and paths have been decorated expertly by the staff to present night vistas that are a feast for the eyes. A variety of colors play together to create interest from just about any angle.
Roasting marshmallows
The courtyard provided an opportunity for families to roast some marshmallows over a fire tended by staff; this little touch of atmosphere amidst the conservatories definitely adds a lovely seasonal feeling, that harkened of times past (where’s Dickens?).
Systematic garden lights
The systematic garden is a veritable festival of lights, as they are everywhere to fill the senses to the brim!
It was a wonderful experience on a brisk night that left us invigorated and ready for a bit of hearty supper!
Dutch goes the Photo! 