The Pensacola Lighthouse is the oldest light station and tallest lighthouse on the U.S. Gulf Coast. First used in 1859, it has flashed its powerful light, visible 27miles out to sea, for the last 154 years. In this image, the lighthouse is decorated for Christmas with seven strands of incongruously tiny lights. I moved as close as possible to the tower in order to stress the cords of miniature colored lights rising into the late afternoon sky. The lighthouse had not yet activated its beacon, leaving the colored bulbs to provide the only electrical illumination here.