Although only a small triangle at the junction of Court Street, New Street and George Street, ‘The Square’ is at the heart of the small Dartmoor town of Moretonhampstead, Devon, where I have lived since 2015.
Moretonhampstead is a market town, parish and ancient manor in Devon with a population of approximately 1,800. It is situated on the north-eastern edge of Dartmoor, within the Dartmoor National Park.
‘The Square’ is popular with cyclists who have either cycled across the Moor, or up the valley along the Wray Valley Trail cycle track from Bovey Tracey and beyond, where they rest their legs and enjoy refreshments from the Central Cafe opposite (just out of the photo to the left), or from the surrounding pubs or the small Co-Op supermarket – hence the wrought iron ‘penny-farthing’ bike rests.
I use ‘The Square’ at carnival time in August – by climbing onto the concrete plinth of the lamppost (adjacent to the Christmas tree in the photo above), I get the perfect camera view looking up the hill of Court Street, above the heads of the crowds, and can look down onto the floats as they pass me by entering into George Street.
Each year the Parish Council put a lot of effort into the Christmas lights, with many of the homes and shops in the centre of town having smaller Christmas trees mounted on metal brackets at first floor height. As one enters into George Street or New Street from the A382 from Bovey Tracey or Whiddon Down, the lights are quite dramatic. For a small rural town they are most impressive!
I was asked at the end of 2021 if I would take a few photos of the lights for the Parish council, and I was asked again in 2022. It isn’t easy! It is not technically difficult, but it is logistically – one needs to find a quiet time at night before the lights switch off at midnight, when there aren’t too many cars parked in the wrong place, and not too many cars passing through the town. This year (December 2022) when this photo was taken, it was bitterly cold, and the fist night was not very successful – a large white van with red and yellow ‘Highway Maintenance’ branding was right next to the tree, along with numerous other cars and the large waste bins from the Horse pub were by the side of the road. The next night was quieter, but the waste bins were still out, the Horse had turned off the lights in their windows, and a large pickup truck was by the roadside. Also it was very cold and frosty. Ideally I would have liked a light rain an hour or so earlier, to reflect all the lights from the decorations.
I took a handful of photos, and eventually managed to get the right camera angles to avoid parked cars and waste bins, and include some additional Christmas lights reflecting in windows. There is only so much one can do to conceal cars and waste bins behind lampposts and Christmas trees.
For such a photograph as this, a tripod is essential. Ideally a remote release, with the camera in ‘mirror up’ mode to ensure maximum stability for a long exposure. I deliberately used a slow ISO and shutter speed to keep the light point sources relatively crisp without too much ‘flare’. Exposure was to some extent trial and error, until I achieved a pleasing softness of light, further enhanced by post-production editing using Nikon’s proprietary NX Studio software (free to download), followed by minor tweaking in Adobe Photoshop.
I feel that this angle worked well for the composition – the string of lights along the top frame the image nicely rather than just disappearing into the blackness of the night sky, and the brick building (a former bank) at the back frames the tree well. The bench, signpost and penny-farthing bicycle rests also help to put some context into the photograph. I also like the effect of the light on the cobbles, however in a light drizzle they would reflect all the lights and be far more dramatic, but either way, the pattern of light on them as is provides for a much more interesting foreground at the base of the image than a flat (and dry) asphalt road would.