Enjoy Nights of Lights scenes all year

Historic City News special events photographer Mark Cubbedge wrote to tell us a little of the background for a special collection of his Nights of Lights photographs that are available for purchase by Historic City News readers.

By following this link photos.athleteimagery.com your can pick your full color, high quality image in two popular sizes, suitable for framing, so that you can enjoy the beauty of the Nights of Lights in St Augustine all year long.

And, if you use OFFER CODE “historiccity” you will receive an additional 10% discount.

A1A Aleworks: This image was among the first I took of the Nights of Lights this year. The vantage point is from below the seawall and looking through the lit palm trees toward A1A Aleworks. There is a magical time called The Blue Hour that photographers love when photographing long exposures. You can see some of that effect here as I was pushing the very end of the time window.

Atlantic Bank: For many St. Augustine natives this building will forever be known as the Atlantic Bank Building. I chose to photograph this landmark from the street level, setting up on a grassy area by the crosswalk. There was a lot of waiting involved as I wanted one of the trolleys — lit in various colored Christmas lights — to pass through the frame during a long exposure. Eventually one was caught at the traffic light and I began the exposure when the light turned green. The yellow, red, green and blue streaks that go through the frame are the lights adorning the side of the trolley.

Aviles Street: Again this was a street level scene of perhaps our most famous brick street — but this time I was l sprawled out on my stomach flat on the ground. More than one patron eating and drinking outdoors at the businesses that line the street had to wonder what I was looking at or doing. If you were there that night and saw a guy face down in the middle of the road, this is the result!

Aviles Street2: Another view of Aviles Street, but with the Ghost Tour theme in mind. The idea here was to have a long exposure of the scene to capture its rich textures and tones, but time it so that partway through the exposure we could quickly light the carriage from an off-camera strobe so it was ghosted into the picture. I would be remiss if I did not thank my good friend and fellow photographer Ralph Priddy for manning the strobe.

Aviles Street3: A second image as described above, but with a different end result in mind. The horse and carriage are burned a bit stronger into the frame and then the lights from the carriage streak out of the image as the carriage is pulled through the view.

Casa Monica: Funny the things I remember while taking these photos. I recall making myself laugh while capturing this image. I had to set up on top of a garbage can that not long ago had been baking in the Florida sunlight. “This image better not stink,” I thought. Hopefully it doesn’t!

Bayfront1: This image was taken on the bayfront during The Blue Hour I described earlier. I wanted to capture the palm trees, lights and structure while showcasing the magnificent blue sky.

Bayfront 2: Similar to the above but only minutes later. This is a great example of how quickly the Blue Hour can go to the Black Night.

City Hall: One of my favorite images from this year. Not sure I can say much else. A picture is worth 1,000 words, right! I have had other photographers ask how I was able to get this particular view because from the same spot they were unable to capture the entire building in the frame. The secret — a 16 mm lens

City Hall2: Another view of City Hall, or the Lightner Museum. This was taken from the street corner in front of Flagler College. Again some waiting was involved to get a horse and carriage to stop at the traffic light. The horse actually held pretty still during the long exposure so he is not badly blurred. The orange, red and white streaks are from cars passing between me and the carriage.

City Hall3: This is my final view of City Hall, taken from the Casa Monica patio. I’ve not seen this angle photographed much, but it is a worthy scene.

Lion: This was a shot I was killing time on, waiting for The Blue Hour to arrive. Again a different perspective of an often-photographed structure gives it the wow factor.