I didn’t think I was going to catch this shot this year.
A neighbour climbing over his house and putting up his Christmas light is usually the first sign that Christmas has arrived. He tends to be early as the installation goes up over the first few days, then the connections get made, and the lights actually go on a few days later.
Not this year though – despite having a perfect roof, there was a squad clambering over it with ladders and hammers. I only hope it was even better by the time they were finished crawling over it, and knocking it about.
He didn’t appear when they disappeared, and I thought the lights weren’t going up – then they suddenly appeared, although I didn’t see them going up this time.
I soon discovered I couldn’t get my ‘usual’ shot – the plants and trees had finally grown to the stage that they were blocking the view, so I had to go hunting for some alternatives.
I wandered to the front of the house, and had expected a bright view – I was wrong.
Turns out this is another of those views where the eye is quite happy, and thinks all is nicely lit – while the reality is that there’s not really much overspill from the lights.
So, I called it a ‘Fail’ to begin with, but after I tried the alternatives, I wasn’t so sure.
Of course, I could have exposed for the walls etc, but then the lights would have been ruined, and just come out as over exposed blobby things.
Christmas Lights Fail
I tried ladders to get over the trees and bushes, but all that did was prove me wrong (or is that right) and the scene just didn’t have enough light spill to allow any shadow detail to be raised.
If I did boost the background, all it gave up was a sort of grey mush with no worthwhile detail.
Christmas Lights Normalish
Time to send up the drones!
One last try, something not tried in the past, the view from above.
It might not have found any more light, but it did at least provide some more decorations, not usually able to be caught in the view from the street.
Christmas Lights Maybe Not Fail
Secret Scotland 