Salisbury Christmas Market

They're all over the country and many are snapping away but this is an official photograph taken for the City Council who operate it - they occupy the Guildhall, the big grand building toward the back.

I was actually kneeling, peering out of an open sash window, in an upstairs 'cloakroom' at the local Pizza Express, shuffling my knees through staff member's (?) spare shoes..., with a cold blast of diesel filled air as the buses loudly clattered off just below me, from the row of bus-stops.

So, got it level, in focus, a middling aperture and lowish iso, then took about 3 at wider angle settings (this is full-zoom of my favourite work-horse, Nikkor's old D 17-35mm on full-frame D700) then left. The next half hour was spent traipsing around the scene you see with the tripod, getting views of the stalls (oops, 'chalets') nearly all with the Guildhall looming large (same lens, but mostly wider) and as it got darker, the colours sang out better until, just 25 minutes later the background night sky was just too dark.

I could have shared a different, possibly more eye-catching and creative angle but have so many others to still edit from the weekend, this 'classic' view was an easy target and easy to edit. It's the first time I've asked for the manager of the Pizza joint, feeling extremely over-dressed and over-laiden and been summonsed to the lofty heights of the viewpoint I know fellow colleagues use. So, a useful contact and indeed, I may ask to go back later in the evening to get an even more colourful shot.