Night shot question...SUGGESTIONS REQUESTED

[jedmag]

in my town, every christmas, we have a huge bell tower on our college campus that they ring with red lights all the way up, and put yellow lights at the top to make a huge christmasy candle.

my question, what's the best settings for something like this, like at night? best time? they turn it on before dark, so i have a good window of time to take this shot. would this be something that would require a somewhat slow shutter? i'm going to be taking it up close, and from a distance, possibly from the far side of a pond to get the light, and the up-side down reflection of it.

any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

thanks!
-jon rowe

[pic_*ist]

Without knowing the location it is difficult to judge the shutter speed.

However, for the time of day, try to get there about an hour or so before its dark. I find this is the best time to get true dark blue night sky and maintain he majority of detail in the shot.

Good Luck