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.