By the end of the evening I had switched positions, was covered in sweat, had been bitten several dozen times and was kind of filled with a deep sense of regret and disappointment. Ofcourse, I'm talking about my experience taking photographs of China's entry in the
L'International des Feux Loto-Quebéc. With all of the bad weather of late, this was my first outing of the year to shoot the fireworks. To be perfectly honest, the conditions still were far from perfect as it was a hot and humid night, but there was enough of a breeze going to make sure that the smoke from the pyrotechnics would be cleared. I decided to try out a new location, the little hill in Seaway Park in Saint-Lambert where I had previously shot a couple of silhouetted photographs of the Jacques Cartier Bridge. For those of you who either don't remember or weren't around, you can find the first photograph
here and the other one
here. Along with my Lovely Assistant, we were the first ones on the hill and I quickly found the spot where I had taken the photographs of the bridge. However, shortly after setting up, I got the sinking feeling that while the spot was good for the bridge, I'd be just a little bit off when it comes to fireworks. Sure enough, the explosions began at 10:00PM and my hope of getting the fireworks and part of the bridge in the same shot came to a quick
end. Luckily, we were only a few downhill steps away from another location I had used to take some photographs in the past, so I folded up the tripod and down the hill I went, coming dangerously close to becoming a modern day Humpty Dumpty at the same time. After the camera was repositioned, another problem quickly arrived. All of the humidity in the air, along with the generally bad air conditions we've had in the area over the last few days, made it impossible for me to see the rockets as they were launched, meaning it was very difficult to properly time my shots. I managed to get lucky a few times, but by the time that the show was half finished, I was a mighty frustrated photographer. Maybe it was the location, but I also found there to be a very limited variety with the fireworks, and not very many that really lit up the sky. So, I decided to focus my attention elsewhere. Namely, cars that were passing by on the highway. My favourite shot of the night was one that I took as three police cars were going past my location and I was lucky enough to have some
fireworks going off in the sky at the same time. That photograph was shot at f/9, 8sec, ISO 100 at 65mm. I then cropped it to 12" x 6". Another shot that I decided to share with you is the one of a a blue explosion. It reminded me of the Montreal Biosphere, another of my favourite subjects. This one was shot at f/9, 7sec, ISO 100 at 65mm. I cropped this one to 12" x 12" as I liked to image of the circle inside of a square frame. The opening photograph of this post is more of a traditional type of shot I try to take when I'm taking photographs of the fireworks. I managed to capture some nice colours in the sky and the light streaks of the
passing cars are an added bonus. That one was shot at f/9, 7sec, ISO 100 at 65mm. I do have one final photograph to share, but this one is more of a social commentary. I can appreciate people who like to watch
fireworks displays. I'm one of them. But, you have to be some kind of an idiot to stop your car on a busy highway to watch them. I decided to protect this guys identity by blurring out his license plate, but I'm still going to show you the picture. People, don't do this. Those lights you see streaking by in the sky belonged to an 18-wheeler. And with that, the show was over and I ended up walking home with more mosquito bites than photographs, but I guess it wasn't a total loss of an evening since I still had enough to fill this page, and a fun little story to go along with it.
end. Luckily, we were only a few downhill steps away from another location I had used to take some photographs in the past, so I folded up the tripod and down the hill I went, coming dangerously close to becoming a modern day Humpty Dumpty at the same time. After the camera was repositioned, another problem quickly arrived. All of the humidity in the air, along with the generally bad air conditions we've had in the area over the last few days, made it impossible for me to see the rockets as they were launched, meaning it was very difficult to properly time my shots. I managed to get lucky a few times, but by the time that the show was half finished, I was a mighty frustrated photographer. Maybe it was the location, but I also found there to be a very limited variety with the fireworks, and not very many that really lit up the sky. So, I decided to focus my attention elsewhere. Namely, cars that were passing by on the highway. My favourite shot of the night was one that I took as three police cars were going past my location and I was lucky enough to have some 
fireworks going off in the sky at the same time. That photograph was shot at f/9, 8sec, ISO 100 at 65mm. I then cropped it to 12" x 6". Another shot that I decided to share with you is the one of a a blue explosion. It reminded me of the Montreal Biosphere, another of my favourite subjects. This one was shot at f/9, 7sec, ISO 100 at 65mm. I cropped this one to 12" x 12" as I liked to image of the circle inside of a square frame. The opening photograph of this post is more of a traditional type of shot I try to take when I'm taking photographs of the fireworks. I managed to capture some nice colours in the sky and the light streaks of thepassing cars are an added bonus. That one was shot at f/9, 7sec, ISO 100 at 65mm. I do have one final photograph to share, but this one is more of a social commentary. I can appreciate people who like to watch
fireworks displays. I'm one of them. But, you have to be some kind of an idiot to stop your car on a busy highway to watch them. I decided to protect this guys identity by blurring out his license plate, but I'm still going to show you the picture. People, don't do this. Those lights you see streaking by in the sky belonged to an 18-wheeler. And with that, the show was over and I ended up walking home with more mosquito bites than photographs, but I guess it wasn't a total loss of an evening since I still had enough to fill this page, and a fun little story to go along with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment