I shot this with the 60mm Micro Nikkor wide open, but since the lens has extended with close focusing, the "effective maximum aperture" has been reduced from f/2.8 to f/3.2. I used the lens wide open simply in order to get the roundest-possible shape on the out of focus mini-lights. I wanted a kind of festive,bright lights feeling,and so I allowed my shutter speeds to go into the slow ranges on these shots,with "some" blur acceptable, but not too overly much. This frame, done at one-eighth of a second at ISO 500 was one of my favorites of this scene.