Light Up the Night!

Since childhood, I've loved Christmas lights. (So magical and beautiful, they almost make up for the fact that darkness descends upon us at such a ridiculously early hour this time of year!)

For the second holiday season in a row, I've been on the hunt for interesting outdoor decorations to photograph.

At Thanksgiving, I started mapping out my strategy: figuring out which locations to target, finding out when tree lightings were scheduled, and then creating a calendar (which, of course, remains fluid based on the forecast). If the location isn't too great a distance, I'll make an initial scouting run. Otherwise, I fly by the seat of my pants, so to speak.

It makes for a jam-packed couple of weeks. Because most images are more interesting and clearly defined if captured before the sky has lost all color, that means there's roughly a 20-minute window during which to shoot - and I can only get one a day.

Since the last weekend in November, I've been in Gloucester and Boston, Massachusetts, at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, poking around coastal Maine, and of course prowling around much nearer to where I live in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire. Much more to come.

This shot from the Dartmouth College Green was taken last night. The conditions were extremely messy, but fortunately the rain let up somewhat for a few minutes so I was able to capture this before my lens was covered with droplets of water.