Fire In The Sky

Tonight marks the beginning of the L'International des Feux Loto-Québec.  I've always enjoyed watching the shows at this annual fireworks competition.  Fireworks are also the reason why I found myself picking up a camera again back in 2008 and began taking courses at Concordia University.  I really enjoyed looking at photographs of fireworks and a switch went off in my head.  I wanted to know how to take pictures like the photographs I'd see in magazines and on the internet.  The key to taking good photographs of fireworks is to use a long exposure time.  You also need a good eye.  In my experience, the best time to begin taking your photograph is when you spot the rockets going up towards the sky.  This way you get the full effect of the explosion and the light trails of the fireworks as they go off in whatever direction they go.  After taking the course that better explained night photography, the Fireworks competition began and I spent most of the nights that had shows in different parts of Saint-Lambert, Longueuil or Montreal, shooting away.  I was planning on doing the same tonight, but Mother Nature has decided that I need to find other plans.  It's raining at the moment, and also rather cloudy with some building humidity in the air.  Not exactly ideal conditions for photographing fireworks.  When it gets like this, the smoke from the fireworks tends to not move away from the site very quickly, and it also gets rather thick.  As a result, the exploding light ends up being hidden behind the thick plums of smoke or swallowed by the clouds.  While this picture isn't as fresh as what I had planned to post later tonight, it's still a dandy.  This photograph was taken back in 2010 during the show by Italy.  It was taken on a bicycle path in Longueuil that I really like.  There are often boats that stop by to watch the show, and the water was calm enough for them to show up in silhouette form here.  Another added bonus with the calm water was that it made for some nice reflections.  A close examination of the photo will also show a couple of Montreal sights, like the Radio-Canada building and the Cross on Mount Royal.  It was shot at f/9, 19sec, ISO 100 at 64mm.  Those of you with good memories will remember that it was also on the wall during my photography exhibition of 2012.  No, I won't ever get tired to writing that.  Here's hoping that the skies will clear for the remainder of the competition so that I can get out and grab some more photos.