Christmas started early in Manhattan Beach
It's starting to look like the holidays in this seaside town
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The lights are lit, the trees are out, and it isn’t even Thanksgiving yet!
The Los Angeles coastal seaside community of Manhattan Beach takes its Christmas festivities seriously, lighting the iconic Roundhouse a week before Thanksgiving with holiday lights and trees.
I got up really early today (11/18) to document the lights by the morning light and ran into my friend Leticia, (a newsletter subscriber, thank you!) who already had her tripod out to do the same thing.
She offered to lend me her globe for a cool upside down look. My shot was on an iPhone 13 Pro, with the telephoto lens focused on the globe. The bigger lens produced the dreamy out of focus background. Thanks Leticia!
The top newsletter shot was taken at 6:09 a.m. I was stalling for 6:30, the scheduled time for the sunrise, because I thought I'd then get a brighter sky against the still lit tree. The shot directly above was at 6:18. You’ll notice the sky is not as dark.
By 6:19, just 60 seconds later, the Pier globe and lights were already shut down.
You've got to move fast for this shot! Because by 6:26, the Roundhouse tree lights were gone too, as you can see in this shot taken from the Strand.
Today (11/18) sunset is scheduled by 4:48 p.m., which means we'll probably have about ten minutes or so to catch the lit tree against the brighter sky. Good luck shutterbugs!
More Pier + henge
I told you last week about how 11/14 was slated to be a very special day under the Manhattan Beach Pier. That’s when the twice-yearly aligning of the sun does its magic and sets directly between the two pillars of the Pier.
Word spread, and wouldn’t you know there were upwards of 100 people under the Pier on Sunday to catch the action? (Vs. only about 6 last year.)
I shot a video of the sunset, and spent most of my time photographing the scene.
The local photographer John Post brought along a six foot ladder for an overhead shot, and got himself a killer image of the scene.
Pierhenge is scheduled to return again on January 27. Charge up your cameras everyone!
I need to venture out to all the piers and check out the holiday decorations. I think your pier will win.