Night Light

Take a small village, add some stores and carts selling handcrafted works of art, a restaurant serving aromatic, flavorful comida, and an adventurous boat ride, put it all together and make it consistently night time and you have Epcot’s Mexico pavilion. Set inside an Aztec temple, La Plaza de los Amigos always has perfect weather, festive lights, and bold primary colors.

You could easily take photos with a flash of the piggy banks, crafts, jewelry, sombreros, and all that catches your eye. However if you want to absorb all that you sense and feel, set your camera to the Night Scene mode and use a tripod or find a flat surface.

I didn’t carry a tripod with me this day. I simply sought out flat surfaces at variable heights, aimed at what interested me, and gently depressed the shutter button on my Canon Powershot SX100 IS, trying not to move the camera while doing so. How did I do?

Sure, I got a few funny looks from shoppers but that doesn’t phase me. I got the shot I wanted. This small display makes me think of ruggedly handsome, Rumba-dancing, scruffy, Mambo-scented caballeros. Is it getting hot in here?

Long exposures pick up on all the colors given off by lights. In this case the lights came out green/yellow and so in Photoshop I scaled back the density. While using the Night Scene any moving subjects will cause a blur. Cool, huh?

Here’s an overall look at the plaza. I would prefer a different vantage point with flat surfaces so as to avoid the glob of white lights that look like they’re on top of the fountain.

This is my preference for sombrero photos.

When using camera modes such as Night Scene, the camera will choose all of the settings (ISO aka film speed, shutterspeed, and aperature) for based on the lighting conditions.

Written while singing along with the “Mamma Mia” movie soundtrack.

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