Just returned from another trip to Colonial Williamsburg. We stayed at the Williamsburg Lodge which is nicely situated right in the historic area. This gave us freedom to walk to and from our room from anywhere in the historic area and me freedom to pickup and go photograph as I pleased.
The gardens were not at their peak during this trip, so I took it as an opportunity to work with a Lensbaby and to do some night photography. When you have been to a location often, creatively it becomes harder to stretch visually. So working with a new lens and during a different time of day provided me some much needed variety in image making.
The image below is one I visualized before the trip when I saw the weather forecast promised a clear night. I knew from previous trips that there would be enough artificial ambient light to allow the Governor’s Palace to be seen, but not so much as to obscure the stars in a clear night sky. I made this image with a Canon 17-55 f2.8 EFS lens wide open and at ISO 400 to keep a reasonably fast shutter speed of 10 sec. (short enough to prevent star streaking).
The Palace is a reconstruction of the original building on this site where several royal governors and both Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson served. The foundation is original, some of which can be seen in the cellar. It’s an amazing building with beautiful grounds and a centerpiece for the town. Photographing it at night was a special experience, especially as I was in earshot of the militia practicing at the magazine (at around 9:30 pm).
*************************************************************
Awesome shot & narrative. Thanks for sharing the settings you used for this shot. I’ve been trying to play with night photos more, but they just haven’t been working out. I need much more practice w/my camera. I only just recently managed to watch the “how to” video about it…Finally!