Napoleon's Dynamite

The 31st edition of the L’International des Feux Loto-Québec is coming to an end with France being the final country presenting a show in the hopes of winning a Jupiter Award.  Representing France was JCO - Jacques Coutturier Organisation.  The original plan for the evening included a nice supper of burgers at the home of My Lovely Assistant's mother, but it was a miserably hot and steamy day which pretty much killed off any desire anyone had to eat anything warm.  A tasty lettuce and also a macaroni salad were on the menu to try and keep me from melting like the Wicked Witch of the West.  An added bonus of eating at Belle Mom's house is that she is walking distance away from one of my favourite locations for shooting the fireworks, a little walking bridge that spans Taschereau Blvd.  I've been to this location at least once a year for the past three years and it always gives me some good results.  The thing I most enjoy about shooting from this location is the automobile traffic that passes under the bridge while the fireworks are happening, adding all kinds of interesting light streaks to the bottom of the shots.  Saying that, traffic seemed a little bit light this year compared to my past experiences.  Possibly because this was a Wednesday night right in the middle of the two week construction holiday, maybe there we less people on the road.  The fireworks themselves were a little disappointing from my vantage point as there weren't many blasts high in the sky until late in the second half of the show.  There were still enough for me to present a few of them here for you all to see.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 63mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 63mm and the third photograph was taken at f/16, 11sec, ISO 100 at 63mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took over the course of the evening.

f/16, 6sec, ISO 100 at 63mm

f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 63mm

f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 63mm

Even though I enjoy going there, I still get a serious case of shaky knees when I put my camera on my tripod and pull my hands away from it the first time.  The image of my camera falling to the concrete below and then getting run over by several passing cars is still a very powerful one that haunts my mind.  Thankfully, once again that image remained in my mind.

American Firepower

A recent newspaper article in Montreal made mention of how a study came to the conclusion that there needed to be fewer parking spaces in the city.  Whoever it was who came to this conclusion obviously didn't try to find a spot to park their car on a Saturday night in Old Montreal.  The forecast called for the possibility of showers on Saturday night, so rather than bike across the river like My Lovely Assistant and I have done in the past, I figured driving in would be the better option.  Especially since I didn't really want to expose my equipment to a good soaking if I could avoid it.  It was a good plan in theory, not so much in practice.  We left a little bit later than I had intended, around 7:00PM, but I figured everything would still be okay because I knew of a little place where I'd be sure to find a spot.  Sadly, that spot has been turned into a bicycle path for the summer, and most of my other secret spots have fallen victim to construction zones.  So, we ended up driving around Old Montreal for about an hour and a half hoping to find a parking spot.  At around 8:30PM, I had had enough of driving and we actually drove over the bridge back home, parked the car and did what we probably should have done from the beginning, we took the Metro.  We ended up getting to the site much later than I had planned, but I still managed to get a spot that I wanted.  As you can tell from the photographs, I wanted to place myself on the walking path down by the Old Port that leads to the Clock Tower.  I was hoping that some of the walking path would remain visible, but instead what I got was a sea of humanity with the odd umbrella thrown in for fun when it began to rain a little bit.  One thing that the rain, and the fact that the lights on the clock tower turned off about half-way through the show, forced me to do was to play a bit with my lens.  I recomposed my shot so that I was photographing only the bridge and the fireworks after the lights on the tower went out, and then quickly went back to my original set-up when the lights came back on.  However, I did miss my composition after the lights came back on originally.  As you can see in the third photograph, I ended up pointing my lens a little higher than planned and ended up losing the reflection of the fireworks in the water.  Though I still like the photograph enough to put up here on the page.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 14sec, ISO 100 at 43mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 35mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 42mm and the fourth photograph was taken at f/16, 12sec, ISO 100 at 35mm.  Here are a few more photographs I took during the show.

f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

f/16, 5sec, ISO 100 at 43mm

After all of that story telling, I forgot to mention that it was the turn of the United States of America to light up the sky, and that job fell to the folks at Rozzie's Famous Fireworks of Loveland, Ohio.  This was their sixth appearance here in Montreal, and twice they've left with Jupiter Awards.  This was another strong showing.

Cloud City

While we're on the topic of clouds, I figured this to be as good a time as any to fish out some older photographs from the archives.  As far as the archives go, these photographs haven't been forgotten very long.  They were taken back in December after a failed attempt to photograph some fireworks.  Hmm, that sounds rather familiar.  For those of you who don't remember, feel free to click on that link.  Though here's a quick recap.  A giant cloud of mist was hanging over the city.  It was quite impressive, though I was a little bit less impressed when the cloud was still there that night when I wanted to photograph some fireworks.  Frustrated, I packed up my gear and decided to give something else a try.  I drove up to the observation deck on Mount Royal and what I saw was pretty cool.  Entire buildings were blocked from view.  You can usually see the river and several bridges from that vantage point.  Nope, there weren't there any more on that night. I took a few shots and was making my way back to my car when I noticed that the mist had lifted a little bit and I could see some of the city lights in the sky.  I quickly went back to the spot where I had taken my previous photographs and snapped a third one of the just reappeared buildings, though they didn't remain in view very long as the mist very quickly swallowed them back up.  It really was something impressive to see. If you look closely at the third photograph, you can see that some of the city skyscrapers can be seen where there is only the large cloud of mist in the other two.  If  you'd like to see the same view but without the mist just to see the big difference, feel free to check out this photograph which I took a few years before from pretty much the same spot.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 40sec, ISO 100 at 30mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 52sec, ISO 100 at 30mm and the third photograph was taken at f/16, 32sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  I had never seen such a thing as that mist cloud before.  It really was something that I don't think I'll forget, and I'm glad I decided to trek out to the mountain that night to photograph it.

Chinese Road Trip

Well, I guess they all can't be winners.  This past Saturday was particularly hot and humid, conditions that don't really bode that well for fireworks.  But, we'll get to that eventually.  First, the show was put on by Vulcan Fireworks of China.  Because of the bad weather, I decided to stay close to home, going up onto the Jacques Cartier Bridge.  Yes, the same bridge I swore I would never go back to for fireworks.  I did some pre-show scouting thanks to Google Maps and found what I thought would be the ideal spot on the bridge to take some shots.  I got there nice and early, grabbed my spot and then waited.  If the story ended there, it would maybe be happy.  Sadly, things took a turn for the worst pretty much as soon as the fireworks began.  The fireworks didn't end up going off exactly where I had thought they would, just far enough away from the bridge so that my wide angle lens couldn't capture them.  Note to self, ask for a lens that goes wider than 24mm for Christmas.  I managed to quickly reposition my camera and found a good second option, but that's when Mother Nature reared her head.  All of the humidity in the air, coupled with there being no wind at all resulted in a large cloud of smoke pretty much taking over the entire area.  After about ten minutes there was nothing but a large white cloud blocking out all of the explosions.  So, what to do?  Before I packed everything up and called it a night, I tried to be a little experimental.  I decided to do some focus-zoom shots.  What that means is pretty much that while you are taking the photograph, you move the zoom ring on the camera in and out several times.  The result is that the lights from the fireworks end up being pulled forward and backwards through the lens.  It makes for an interesting final image, and also the best I could do considering the circumstances.  It wasn't a stunning success, but I was at least able to come home with something.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 18sec, ISO 100 at 32mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 30mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/16, 19sec, ISO 100 at 30mm.  Here are a couple of the focus-zoom photographs I took.

f/16, 12sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

f/16, 11sec, ISO 100 at 65mm

f/16, 7sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

It was an interesting little evening.  Had it not been for all of the smoke I might have gotten more blasts of the fireworks, but I probably wouldn't have bothered trying the focus-zoom shots.  After a few more shots, the smoke had gotten even thicker so I packed up and made my way down from the bridge before everyone else who was staying behind to see the smoke show.  I hope they enjoyed it.

Canadian Armageddon

We're half way through this years L’International des Feux Loto-Québec and I've managed to not have to double up on a location just yet.  This past Wednesday it was Canada's turn to light up the skies over the St. Lawrence River.  It was Archangel Fireworks of Winnipeg, Manitoba who had the honour of representing Canada.  For this show, My Lovely Assistant and I returned to a little vacant lot just off of Taschereau Blvd. in the city of Longueuil.  The city has a good little cash grab going with that spot.   For 357 days of the year, the place is an empty lot of land, but for eight nights a year during the fireworks competition, it suddenly becomes a first-come-first-served parking lot which will cost you $8 if you wish to park your car.  Fortunately for my wallet, My Lovely Assistant is able to convince my lazy self to use our bicycles to get to the site or I would probably be of those people spending $8 to park my car, and another $10 in gas while sitting in traffic waiting to leave after the show.  Seeing as how this is a popular location, we decided to pack a picnic supper and arrived at the lot a little after 7:30PM...more than two hours before the show began.  Last year I arrived at the spot about an hour before the show only to find out that the place was already packed.  I didn't want to make that mistake again.  This is always one of my favourite locations to shoot the fireworks.  All in one photograph, you get the fireworks in the sky, the Jacques Cartier Bridge in the background, a few of the rides from La Ronde in silhouette as well as some boats watching the show from the river and the reflection of the fireworks on the water.  That makes of lots of things to look at.  This first photograph was taken at f/16, 11sec, ISO 100 at 38mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 17sec, ISO 100 at 38mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took during the show.

f/16, 7sec, ISO 100 at 51mm

f/16, 6sec, ISO 100 at 38mm

f/16, 14sec, ISO 100 at 38mm

f/16, 7sec, ISO 100 at 38mm

The bicycle ride home was much more pleasant than last year as well.  Thank-you to all of those people out there who remembered that a bicycle path is not a meeting place but rather a place where people ride their bikes.

Summer Pizza

It's been really hot the last few days, so I was more than happy to return home the other day and finding a note from My Lovely Assistant telling me that there was a small pizza waiting for me in the fridge.  I was expecting to find a small tomato paste pizza with some toppings waiting for me, so you can imagine my surprise when I opened the door to find this very creative watermelon and fruit pizza.  It was so good looking that I immediately grabbed my camera and began to play with my food.  Food photography is still something I like to practice from time to time.  In order to get some proper lighting on the pizza and eliminate some of the shadows created by the fruit toppings, I placed the cutting block on the kitchen table and then added a white plate to the other side to reflect some light back onto the pizza.  I also used some flash to try and even things out, playing with some different speeds so that the flash wouldn't wash out all of the colour.  I also tried to stage the photograph a little bit by adding the pizza cutter.  The first photograph was taken at f/11, 1/40sec, ISO 100 at 42mm and the second photograph was taken at f/11, 1/40sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  My Lovely Assistant has quite the creative mind in the kitchen.  This was the ideal cool snack for a hot and muggy day.

Italian Rock 'n' Roll

It was the third fireworks display of the L’International des Feux Loto-Québec on Saturday night.  It was Italy's turn to light up the skies of Montreal and the show was put on by A.P.E. Parente fireworks company.  The theme for the evening was 'Pyro Rock 'N' Roll' and reminded me that I really need to bring a radio on these shoots as the soundtrack featured songs by The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and Kiss among others.  All groups that I love.  The second reason to bring a radio would be that hearing the music clues would help clue me in on which fireworks are coming.  I've been watching and photographing these shows for years now, and more often than not, you can tell when the big fireworks are about to go off by listening to the musical cues in the songs that are being played.  If something soft is being played, you're probably going to get a lot of low fireworks.  But, if there's a moment in that song when things pick up or take a heavier turn, you can be guaranteed that a larger explosion is probably going to accompany the musical shift.  There were lots of times where I either closed my shutter to quickly and missed a large explosion or opened to to late because I didn't know a sequence was about to begin.  I still walked away with some pretty good shots and I was happy with the location.  I was back on the little street just behind the Longueuil Metro Station, but much further to the right of the station and closer to the Jacques Cartier Bridge than I had been in the past.  I used the Google Maps feature to scan the street until I found a location that would give me a clear view of the fireworks, but also provide a view of the Monster roller-coaster ride and the Jacques Cartier Bridge itself at the bottom of the screen.  Since I was still next to Highway 132, I was also able to get some light streaks from the passing cars into some of my shots, though I tried to aim a little above the highway as the flares that the police placed on the road were causing some havoc with my shots.  The first photograph was taken at f/11, 6sec, ISO 100 at 27mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 9sec, ISO 100 at 27mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 27mm and the fourth photograph was taken at f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 27mm.  Here are a couple more photographs that I took over the course of the 30 minute show.

f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 27mm

f/16, 22sec, ISO 100 at 27mm

A quick little note about camera courtesy.  While I was taking one of my shots, a fellow fireworks enthusiast walked right past me, in front of my camera and ruining my shot.  He quickly apologized and I let it slide because I knew that I had several other shots already in my camera, but while you're out there watching the shows, try and watch out for those of us taking photographs.  We're generally accompanied by large cameras and tripods making us very hard to miss.

England Rocks

The L’International des Feux Loto-Québec continued this past Saturday night, but before we get to that, I have some business to take care of from last time.  Long time readers will know that I love nothing more than to link to my own work.  I suppose that some may see it as being a little over the top, but as the old saying goes, you never know when the pair of eyes that is looking at your work is doing so for the first time.  If so, why not point them towards something else that you've also done.  I've been posting fireworks photographs here on the blog over the last two years.  If any of you out there are new around here and would like to see those, you can easily find them by clicking on the links on the right-hand side of the page.  Most of them can be found in July 2014 and also July 2013.  Getting back to the business at hand, this past Saturday's display was done by Jubilee Fireworks of Kingswinford, England.  It was a clear and cool night, so I decided that it was time to try out a new location, one that I had been thinking about using for two years now.  I packed up my gear, and My Lovely Assistant packed up some snacks and we drove up to the observation deck on Mount Royal.  I'd seen some fireworks taken from this location and was very eager to try it for myself.  What I liked about the location is that you get a nice view of several buildings in the foreground of the show, as well as a nice dark sky which allows the fireworks to really be the star of the photograph.  I also really like being able to get a good view of the Jacques Cartier Bridge in the shot from this location as old time readers know, I really like being able to get the bridge into my shots.  What I didn't like was all of the tourists.  Knowing that I needed to get a good spot, we arrived on the observation deck a little bit after 8:00PM...a good two hours before the fireworks would begin.  I walked around a bit, looking for the perfect spot, and when I found it, I grabbed it and nothing short of a hurricane was going to get me to move.  Though several pushy tourists and a couple of tripod kicking kids tried their best, I stood my ground and came home with several good photographs, though I may not have made many new friends.  The first photograph of this group was taken at f/16, 12sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 16sec, ISO 100 at 70mm.  The third photograph was taken at f/16, 9sec, ISO 100 at 70mm and the fourth photograph was taken at f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 100mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took over the course of the show.

f/16, 16sec, ISO 100 at 70mm

f/16, 14sec, ISO 100 at 100mm

To finish things on a somewhat happier note, while we were up on the mountain, one of those tourist couples decided to tie the knot.  While I was adjusting my camera settings, a man had knelt down next to his girlfriend, who was next to us, and next thing I knew, a little box had appeared, the word 'yes' was heard and then much applause.  Actually, I missed all of this, but I was filled in on the happenings by My Lovely Assistant.  I hope that they lead a long and happy life together.

L’International des Feux Loto-Québec 2015

It's the beginning of July which can only mean one thing, it's time once again for the skies over Montreal to be filled with bright lights and loud explosions.  The L’International des Feux Loto-Québec is back once again with several shows to take place over the next month.  The first show last night was produced by local fireworks company, Feux d'artifice B.E.M. and was titled 'Salute Our Troops'.  It had been raining all day before the show so I decided to stay close to home for this show, staking out a spot in Seaway Park in Saint-Lambert.  What I like best about this location is that it is right next to Highway 132.  As a result, with all of the cars that pass by, it means that not only can I fill the top of my photographs with interesting colours from the fireworks, but the bottom of my frame gets filled by the interesting light streaks created by the cars that are passing by on the highway.  If my timing is really good, a police car will pass by with their lights flashing at the same time as some big blasts will go off in the sky.  It creates a rather cool effect that I like having at the bottom of my photographs.  It was rather windy which caused some problems when you consider the bad effects that a moving tripod can have on a long exposure photograph, but by getting a little crafty and using my baseball cap as a shield, I still managed to click off a few interesting shots.  The first one at the top of the page was taken at f/13, 10sec, ISO 100 at 68mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/13, 11sec, ISO 100 at 58mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took during the show.

f/13, 9sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

f/13, 9sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

f/13, 18sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

f/13, 17sec, ISO 100 at 68mm

There are seven more shows before the 31st annual edition of the festival comes to an end.  I'll be sure to try and get out there for a few more of them before the month comes to an end.