Inside the fire was burning, the Christmas tree was lit, and the family was happily and merrily manufacturing mayhem.
I stepped outside to taste the weather and for a moment of quiet. The rain had stopped and the world was very still and foggy. I noticed that the succulent on our front porch was plastered with jewel-like water drops, and the drops reflected our outdoor Christmas lights (or, as they call them in England, Fairy lights).
Exposing using the available light provided by the reflections of these small and distant colored bulbs, and whatever ambient light they provided, was on the tricky side. It was hard to see anything, either on the camera, the macro rig, or the composition. Forget about visually checking depth-of-field! (You can view this image’s EXIF data here.)
These were long time exposures. Fortunately, everything did stay very still. There was not a breath of wind.
It was hard for me to keep my concentration hearing the ruckus inside.
Nicky came out, and held down the remote shutter release for me on a couple of the exposures in the series, including this one. He was proud to help, and it was fun “keeping still” for the exposure with him.
And, yes, I am pleased with how this image came out.