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.