Every year the courtyard of Somerset House in central London is turned into an ice rink, complete with floodlights and Christmas tree. The House itself forms the perfect backdrop to an enchanting winter scene. Tickets sell out fast and the small rink gets quite crowded, especially in the evenings when this shot was taken. Consequently it’s a lot easier to take wide-angle shots of the ice rink than close-ups of individual skaters.

This shot was taken using the ISO 800 setting on the Canon EOS 10D, which produces a grainy but perfectly acceptable image, and at the same time allowed me to handhold the camera and get a sharp image (no tripods are allowed without prior agreement). I used a slowish shutter speed of 1/30th second to blur the movement of the skaters and help convey a sense of speed.

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