The Best for Photography

'Oh, have you ever seen the lights?' asked Brandon Flowers of The Killers in their 2006 song Sam's Town. He may well have had a vision of Durham on a cold Thursday in November 2009 when he wrote those words because I've never seen lights – or the city – like this before.

Those of us who live and work here have always known what a beautiful place it is but have been shocked by its relative anonymity outside the North East. We have a world-class University, a magnificent Cathedral and stunning countryside in the surrounding areas – but when a friend of mine from Devon was travelling up to visit he thought he had to get off the train in Newcastle upon Tyne. 'No, get off in Durham' I told him. 'Where's that?' he asked. 'Is it a suburb of Newcastle?'

Lumiere, hopefully, will start to change all that. Wandering down from my studio in Gilesgate on Thursday night I was immediately captivated by the strange colours rising up from the city and the illuminated shapes above buildings – why can't it be like this all the time?

If you're travelling here to take some photographs there are some immediate pointers. Firstly, bring a tripod. Set your camera to a slow shutter speed (around 10 seconds at ISO 200 or 3 seconds at ISO 800 depending on how much motion you'd like to see in your shots) and an aperture around f5 – enough to capture plenty of detail.

Head into the Market Square for A Place for the People and choose your position. One important thing about Lumiere is to look up – so position your camera low and pointing upwards. If you stand on the right side of the Market Square you'll avoid the crowd that gathers in the centre and capture the faces on the buildings from an interesting angle.

Dress (for five people) greets you towards the top of Saddler Street. If you want to photograph this then do it from the right side at a downwards angle – otherwise you'll get a picture of your reflection in the window!

Head into the Cathedral for the stunning Chorus. This is a very rare opportunity to take photographs inside the building (not usually allowed) so stay away from the central aisle – it's too busy – and set up your tripod at the side of one of the rear benches for a stunning angle of the swinging pendulums.

Outside, brace yourself for Crown of Light. The sight (and sounds) of the Lindisfarne Gospels projected onto the Cathedral exterior is simply magnificent. The experience lasts around 12 minutes and this is one area where you may want to increase the ISO (400 to 800) and decrease the shutter speed (to around 3 secs) as you don't want the amazing moving images to be captured as a blur. There's a tree at the bottom right of the path leading out of the Cathedral entrance. Set up here for another interesting angle where no-one will bother you – they're all standing on Palace Green.

There's much more to see – and photograph – but if you'd like some wide shots of the city illuminated there are two great options. Head down from the market place and set up your camera on the Leazes Road traffic bridge opposite the Gala Theatre. This will give you a wonderful wide shot of the river, the Castle and Cathedral all bathed in light. After that – if your legs can take it – make the trek up the hill to the railway station. Here you'll have a magnificent opportunity to capture the city's skyline, basking in Lumiere's lights.

Dylan Baker is a professional photographer based in the North East. You can see more of his photography at www.dylanbaker.co.uk.

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