Thinking Inside The Box

We've reached the end of June, which can only mean one thing.  Only two more months of oppressive heat until the cool air of Fall returns!  Oh yeah, and it also means that the International des Feux Loto-Quebec is back for another year of bright lights and loud explosions.  To begin the 2014 season, which is the 30th Anniversary of the fireworks competition, it was Germany who had the honour of being the first to light up the sky.  I began the season at a similar spot to one I had used last year because the location I had really wanted to use ended up not being as ideal as I thought it would be.  I also had another flare problem.  In an effort to avoid repeating the same problem I had last year with light from the flare leaking into my shots, I chose a spot where no flares had been directly placed on the highway infront of me.  I had a wide smile as I watch the cop walk by, not stopping to light any flares on the ground.  Sadly, my smile didn`t last very long as the cop stopped right infront of me on her way back to the car and dropped the flare she had been using to light the others.  Busted, my spot had been ruined, with only five minutes until show time.  I moved a few feet to the right, losing the road flare, but ending up with an unwanted street light in my shot.  There was no time to move anywhere else so I decided to shoot away, knowing that I`d have to do some cropping when I got home.  I ended up having to crop some of the thoughts into a 12x12 format rather than the 12x8 that I regularly use.  I still ended up with some nice shots, though maybe not as spectacular as in the past.  Maybe it`s just me, but I found the explosions to be a bit less wild than in years gone by.  Perhaps it was my location, perhaps my timing was off, perhaps my my mind was elsewhere.  Anyway, enough negativity.  I still think I ended up with a few nice shot. To compensate for the lack of action in the sky, I tried to add a little more of a light show to the bottom of my shots.  Passing police cars produce almost as much fancy light as the fireworks themselves.  The first shot you see here was taken at f/14, 10sec, ISO 100 at 43mm.  The second shot was taken at f/14, 17sec, ISO 100 at 43mm.  Here are a few more shots from last night.

f/14, 6sec, ISO 100 at 43mm

f/14, 7sec, ISO 100 at 43mm

f/11, 12sec, ISO 100 at 43mm

f/11, 11sec, ISO 100 at 43mm

I`ll admit, I was a little down on the walk home from taking these shots, but as usual, My Lovely Assistant was right.  I always hate my shots after the fireworks end, but they never end up being as bad as I thought they would be.