Mt. Rainier and Lenticular Clouds - Dec. 2008 copyright: JMM

December 16, 2014

Quest for the Perfect Night Shots

Before my painting class the other night, I went to downtown Sandwich to try and get some shots of the Christmas lights.  I try to shoot every year over there but it's hard to schedule it around bad and cold weather.  Plus I am becoming afraid to drive at night and in fact I had a really hard time navigating around town just to get these, and I know downtown like the back of my hand.

So I started by taking a bunch of pics of the lit tree in Shawme Pond.  Without a tripod and really knowing the settings on my camera, it's hard to get a really decent & clear picture.  Plus I should go down there at blue hour instead of after it's pitch black.  First few attempts were blurry.



Then I walked over to the First Church of Christ to take a pic of this 'giant' (they are all over town now) first without flash.

And with my hand covering the flash to let in less light but speeding up the shutter.

Next to Town Hall.


The iconic Jarves dolphin candlestick giant, at the Glass Museum.

Marsha's sister in law lives here and I would love to get a look inside.  It's a beautiful home and they have lovingly restored it to it's Victorian splendour.  It's one of the showplaces in town too.  It's gorgeous no matter what time of year you see it.

This was taken from the other side of the pond (with my back to the above house).

Was surprised to see this was still up from the summer but they really need to replace all the lights that have burned out!

OK this is the best shot of the tree in the pond.

And I love this house too....I always shoot it at Christmas.  It's across from the pond and next to the First Church of Christ.

I only had a few minutes before meeting up with Mary so I zoomed back to the Sandwich/Sagamore line real quick to take a few shots.  This is without the flash.

And with.  There was so much traffic that kept obstructing my shot plus my car was parked in a bad place and both my car and me ran the risk of getting creamed by other drivers.  

Hoping to get back down there soon to get some more night pics!

10 comments:

  1. I like the pix you managed to get. Couple of nice houses there too. Sorry to hear you are having problems with night driving. Very frustrating I would think.

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    1. Oh you have no idea. I haven't had to drive very far at night at all for a couple of years and now I can't do it at all.

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  2. wow! it totally looks like the Christmas tree is floating. LOVE it :D

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    1. My friends from high school, Jay & Sean, don their wetsuits and brave the cold to put that tree in the pond every year. It's beautiful and quite striking at night.

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  3. How lovely to have so many big light displays! We have houses with enough bulbs to keep the electric companies in profit for a number of years, but not many like yours - so lucky :) xx

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    1. I went out the other night to shoot in my town and there are tons of lights here too. Unfortunately there were some weird people out and about so I didn't do a very good job of shooting. It was only 5:45 pm!!!!

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  4. The night shot - white light combo gets me everytime.
    Hugs, JoJo. xo

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    1. Thanks! I like a mix of white and coloured but the white does look very elegant at night, esp. in a historic town like Sandwich.

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  5. My pictures haven't been able to do my own tree justice. I love all the lights!

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    1. Nor have mine....ever.....but at least I try to make a record of what it looked like each year! And I've been shooting my yearly Christmas tree since I lived with my parents in the 80s.

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