Blackpool illuminations and night photography

When you have an attraction on your doorstep, you either take it for granted or take the opportunity to photograph it. My usual inclination is towards the latter – not least because of my love of photography and a drive to continually improve and master new techniques.

Blackpool Illuminations is an annual festival that started in 1879. The event costs over £2 million to stage and the mountain of equipment is valued over £10 million. The Lights usually attract more than 3 million visitors to Blackpool, so missing the opportunity of an annual photography visit would be inexcusable.

I chose two bleak and cold nights to photograph the Illuminations this year: the first night with friends, while carrying a backpack of gear; the second alone and travelling light with a compact camera and tripod.

It's true that you can get an acceptable picture with a modern mobile phone or with a simple camera set to full automatic; so why carry all the extra clobber? Quite simply, it's because a keen photographer strives for an exceptional picture rather than just an acceptable one.

I've chosen the next picture as my signature shot from this year's lights because I was intent on showing movement by incorporating motion blur. This requires a fairly long exposure with the camera secured on a tripod.

This shot used a 1 second exposure to show movement: of the tram passing closely by on the right, and from the oncoming car headlights approaching on the left. There is detail in the static illuminations because the camera was mounted on a tripod. The reflections in the water on the roadside add atmosphere and interest. (For photographers, the exposure details are: 1 second at f8; 100 ISO; and a focal length of 26mm)

Many purists argue that night photography works best just after lighting-up time, while there is residual light in the sky, yet here the black canvas of the sky focuses attention on the illuminations and makes the Lights stand out. In short, there is no such thing as bad light: just different light. There would be no picture on this page had I stayed indoors and left my camera idle.

You can always find something different if you look. After taking a number of typical shots of the suspended illuminations, and an occasional one of silhouetted figures walking along, I found a light show running in a booth. After watching the pattern of the show, I took an abstract shot timed at a sixth of a second to capture its essence, then applied creative effects post production to produce this final image.