Wet, Shiny, Colourful...

Well, I did sort of promise something a little Christmassy - and two solid days of rain had me thinking of getting some night shots of Salisbury's Christmas lights.

I try a few shots each year and a supposed (but not materialised) break in the rain had me out in the light but rather annoying spits and spots. For a medieval market city, it has a surprising lack of old cobbled streets, the ones you really want in the rain, after dark.

So, this is Fish Row. In the morning, the Tuesday market will be up and running - and boy, do they set up early for this - if you think that I'm the only one up at silly o'clock, these guys are driving their white vans along here and preparing to set up. By the time I had finished my last shot, a dirty great butcher's van simply drove in front of me and my tripod.

I was also somewhat limited in my choice of subject by a loud, sudden crunch, as I was setting up the tripod, about 50 yards behind me in this shot. Somehow, a taxi had smashed right into a traffic light, which wasn't even on the corner! I watched the driver get out, the whole front stoved in and wrapped around the pole. He got back in, started up and reversed. Or tried to. A sickening screech and crunch and he was stuck, caught in the middle of the road.

There's not a lot of traffic around at that time of night. I did watch for a bit, to make sure he was OK but guessed (correctly) that he would radio in and soon a colleague's cab came up, then a ambulance car, which didn't stay long. It took at least 20 minutes for the police to turn up. All this while I was taking these shots but I felt a little awkward and I daren't turn the tripod around and shoot toward the wreck. He would probably think I was videoing him - I was happy to be close enough and seen, should the police want a witness statement but I wanted to keep myself and what I was doing separate, if at all possible.

Lens is Nikkor 10-24mm. Missing iso = 100.
Possibly worth looking in LARGE

Should you have a second, my swans flying at sunrise blip a year ago (thumbnail below) is one of my all time favourites.

Tim's Top Tips - 1) When on a tripod, switch any VR, OS, VC or any vibration reducing facilities OFF. I am always surprised how many folk don't read their lens' manuals and actually switch it on. I will leave the reasons why this is so for you all to read in those manuals of yours.

2) Though I have a separate remote control for my D7000, I often find it fiddly or it just doesn't work as reliably as it should. Again, with a tripod, it is essential to not simply jab down the shutter release by hand, however gently you do it you are potentially moving the camera, as almost all tripods have some 'spring' to them. I almost all of the time set the camera's self timer to its shortest setting, 2 seconds. This means an almost immediate release, without the need for a fiddly remote or firing by hand.