Nassau Lighthouse in the Evening
Almost Dark
The light in the Nassau lighthouse in the Bahamas shines at dusk as our ship leaves the harbor during our 2018 Christmas Disney Cruise.
In many of our previous visits to Nassau during our cruises, I have always enjoyed seeing the lighthouse and getting a few photos of it. After all, we don’t have a lighthouse back home, because we don’t have a need for one. So it is always interesting to see a real, live lighthouse, even though most of them are just automated operations now.
But on this Christmas cruise, it was our first time to see the light actually on in the lighthouse. The ship left at the same time that it always does. But due to the shorter amount of daylight in the winter (or actually just a couple of days before the winter solstice), it got dark outside much earlier. As we were sailing away, the sun had already set, but it was not quite all the way dark yet, so I managed to get a somewhat decent photo of the lighthouse.
One trick was timing the photo to actually catch the light. It was a rotating light, so I had to hit the shutter button on the camera at just the right time as the light came around to our direction. It took a few tries, but I got it.
One of the neat things about going on this cruise at a different time was seeing some of the small differences that the change in seasons brought. The lighthouse at night might be a minor detail, but we liked seeing it.
Let Your Light Shine
A lighthouse does not serve much purpose in the daylight. However, it is quite useful in the dark of night.
Lighthouses always remind me of the words of Jesus in Matthew 5:
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” - Matthew 5:14-16
Our lights can shine even brighter in the darkness. That does not mean that we should seek out the darkness to try to shine our lights, because the darkness can usually be a pretty bad place to be.
However, if we do find ourselves there in the darkness, that is the perfect opportunity to let our lights shine. Not for our glory, of course but for God’s glory.
About the Photo
Unfortunately, this photo is not quite as clear as I would have liked for it to be. That was in part due to the fact that it was almost dark outside, and in part due to the fact that the ship was moving. Actually, those two facts work together, don’t they?
I had the ISO pushed up fairly high, although I did not want to introduce too much noise into the photo. If we had not been moving relatively quickly, I could have changed to the 50mm prime lens to get a wider aperture and let more light into the camera. If we go back again at that time of year, I will be more prepared!
This distant shot still turned out pretty well overall. I thought I might have better luck as we got closer to the lighthouse. But we were also picking up speed by that time. Cruise ships do not travel all that quickly, but the speed of the ship was enough that long exposures were out of the question.
Besides, I do like the cool clouds on this distant view. Those would not have shown up in a closer photo. Clouds are always cool!
Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Sony FE 28-70mm f/3.5-5.6 OSS Lens
Date: December 19, 2018
Location: Nassau, Bahamas
