There is rarely so much going on in the city as the few weeks before Christmas. The annual Christmas market is in full swing and shops are open seven days a week.

Christmas lights and decorations can be seen all over the city and Luxembourg's Christmas market does not need to hide behind markets in other, bigger cities. A ferris wheel, numerous little shops, carousels and even an ice skating rink attract lots of people into the capital, especially during the week-ends.

All those people don't make it particularly easy for a photographer. Well, I guess, it all depends on which type of photography you wish to achieve. If you head out to shoot some street photography, it's pretty much perfect conditions, lots of people, lots of stuff going on. And if you wait for that early night when lots of people still roam the streets, it's very easy to create some nice effects by using a slower shutter speed and making very dynamic images with lots of movement in them.

Although, if your goal is to make some land-/cityscape pictures, you better bring a lot of patience and most importantly a sturdy tripod, which you will guard with your life... You can't imagine the number of people that will just walk blindly through the streets, most of the time looking at their phones, heading straight into your tripod's legs, tripping, dragging the whole thing with them, breaking your camera... And after all that fuss, you'll have to ask Santa for a new camera. Thankfully, nothing of that sort happened to me the other day I was photographing Luxembourg's Christmas market. And with all those people in the city, it's the perfect time for some street photography.

Christmas 2013

Last year I created a few memorable pictures. First there was my picture Waves of Lights of the Christmas lights hanging all over rue Philippe II which took quite some time to create. In order to only get 'shadowy' people in the back, I had to wait for less people walking through the streets and combine this with shooting some very long exposures. Then I shot my picture Festive Fun just in front of the Christmas market on Place de la Constitution. This spot has now already become some kind of a classic view, with numerous photographers taking the same picture from this very same point of view. And then I made this very close picture of Luxembourg's City Hall that I called Winter Town, filling almost the entire frame with the building and using the lines on Place Guillaume II in order to create an interesting foreground for the picture.

Christmas 2014: A new point of view

This year, I have been very lucky to have been invited to a new location by a new friend. Shooting from this all new spot allowed me to create some unique pictures of the market. I had a perfect view above the Place de la Constitution and its surroundings and was able to capture some really nice long light trails along the avenue that lies right next to this part of the Christmas market. Doing so during blue hour also created this nice contrast between the deep blues of the city and the sky in the background and the orange, yellow and red tones created by the Christmas lights of the market. Having the light trails in the foreground creates these perfect leading diagonals, especially in the landscape-oriented picture Season's Greetings. 'Tis the Season provides a slightly closer look on the market.

My picture Psychedelic Christmas is taken from much further away than the other captures. It is a view on the Place de la Constitution taken from the Passerelle, which is the bridge that crosses over to the other side of the Pétrusse valley and lies pretty far away. It is my only picture of the Christmas market that includes the ferris wheel this year. I am pretty happy with the general look of the big wheel, partly in motion and partly stationary so that the individual gondolas appear in the picture, rather than having only long round light trails.

This concludes my Christmas article. If you wish to see more pictures of the city of Luxembourg, visit my Gallery.

If you are looking for some typical Luxembourgish Christmas gifts, have a look at my online shop.

Thank you for reading.