The second annual Gardens Aglow at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens is underway. The 360,000 LED lights strung throughout the property off Barters Island Road in Boothbay is dazzling. The event will continue through Dec. 31. Go to the website, http://www.mainegardens.org/calendar-events/gardens-aglow/, for more information and to order tickets online.

Here, we will continue to post photos, taken by staff and submitted by others, for your enjoyment, so check back often.

Professional photographer Michael Leonard, a regular contributor to the newspaper who provided photographs for this gallery (see below), offered the following tips in shooting Gardens Aglow:

1 – Use a tripod and in lieu of that find some stable platform on which to rest your camera to keep it stable.

2 – If your camera phone had the HDR or High Dynamic Range setting turn that on. Lights against a black background is the textbook example of a High Dynamic Range scene – simply enabling that mode will help make a better looking image.

3 -Finally you want to capture all of the color – not delete it. So find and set your White Balance to ‘Daylight.’ LED lights are actually Daylight Balanced light so if you shoot with ‘daylight’ film or set your white balance accordingly you will be all set to make your best shots.