Smoked Out

With fireworks, much like life, nothing is certain. Everything was planned and in place for a nice evening.  There was a fireworks display, put on by the Innovative Pyrotechnik GMBH firm out of Germany, and also a concert being held on Île Notre-Dame by possibly the biggest hard rock band of our time, Metallica.  The plan was simple.  Head out on bike to my favourite spot to shoot fireworks while listening to some of the great tunes being blasted from the island all evening.  And then, Mother Nature decided to throw it all into a loop.  A heavy at times early evening shower left the city trapped in a big bubble of humidity.  If there is one thing that I have learned over the years, humidity and fireworks just don't mix.  When the explosions go off, the smoke ends up mixing with the humid air and doesn't move.  This means that other that the first couple of explosions, everything else just gets swallowed in the smoke.  The first photograph was from the first set of explosions and was taken at f/16, 6sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  Everything afterwards, including the second photograph that was taken at f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 27mm was smoked out.  Here are a few more smokey shots.

f/16, 12sec, ISO 100 at 57mm

f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 34mm

By the third photograph, I was getting frustrated just photographing smoke, so I decided to take a long exposure shot of the police cars going down the highway while trying to get the slow moving cars to move along. I also liked the smoke beginning to fall on the highway deeper into the right side of the photograph.  Hopefully the weather will be more cooperative with the remaining shows.