Fire On Ice

Last night was the first Telus Fire On Ice fireworks display down at the Old Port of Montreal.  I took some photographs last year at a few of the Saturday night shows, which you can find by looking though the December 2013 and January 2014 pages of the blog.  There are lots of other pictures you can find on those pages as well.  The theme for the show was music from video games, however since my video game glory days date back to Pac-Man & Mario, I didn't really recognize any of the songs.  I wasn't really sure where I would place myself for this show.  Last year my trip to the Old Port ended in near disaster as the location I chose ended up being a bust.  I had hoped to find a spot where I could not only get the fireworks, but also have some of the buildings of Old Montreal in the background.  It wasn't meant to be be as most of the spots I had hoped to sneak into were chained shut with large signs saying they were closed because of the fireworks display.  So, running short of options and time, I decided to plant myself next to a group of other photographers who were also there to take pictures of the show.  There must have been seven or eight of them, so I figured that they must have known what they were doing and that it was a good spot.  It did turn out pretty well, though I think a wider angled lens would have been helpful.  All of the photographs I took were at 24mm, and I still missed some of the explosions higher in the sky.  With Christmas coming, if any of you kind people would like to contribute to the Buy Eric A Wider Angle Lens Fund, it would be greatly appreciated.  I had thought about moving back a bit, but my area had already gotten pretty congested with people.  I tried to adjust by tilting the head of my tripod so I could shoot vertically, but I preferred what I was seeing on my camera screen from the shots that were taken horizontally.  Once that little bit of adjusting was taken care of, I spent most of the rest of the fifteen minute show taking photographs. My favourite of those photographs taken are now here for you all to see.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 11sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 24mm and the third photograph was taken at f/16, 9 sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  Here are a couple more shots that I took of the Telus fireworks display.

f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

The Telus Fire On Ice fireworks displays are scheduled to continue for the next couple of Saturday nights.  If it fits your holiday schedules, you should try and head out there for a little fun in the fresh winter air.