Although it was still November (just) a number of Christmas markets had already cropped up so I thought I’d head off to York in the afternoon, have a look at the St Nicholas Fair and do a Christmas dusk shoot.

I arrived as the sun was setting and had a wander into Museum Gardens first where the tail-end of autumn presented some nice opportunities with fallen leaves.

Wandering into town I had a look at the Minster, which of course I’ve photographed many times at dusk already, but it seemed to have a particularly warm pink glow to it in the wintry sunshine just before sunset.

I had a look along Parliament Street and the stalls of the Christmas market but didn’t get anything that I was happy with there so as the blue hour colour was approaching I headed back along Stonegate towards the main Christmas subject I had in mind at St Helen’s Square.  Along the way I found this pretty looking Christmas shop – and didn’t realise at first that it used to be Mulberry Hall (I didn’t even know it had gone!).

Looking along Stonegate to St Helen’s Square with a longer lens worked well, compressing the perspective of the shop signs and Christmas lights effectively.

As the light faded I finished off in St Helen’s Square itself which I thought looked lovely with Stonegate and the Minster beyond.  A passer-by asked if I was going to sent a photograph to the local paper to complain about the terrible Christmas tree!  It does appear to be leaning over a bit (that’s not just a converging vertical!) but I rather like the simple plain white lights and it was a pleasing end to the shoot.