Montreal International Fireworks Competition - United States Of America

This is the story of a show that I almost missed.  Saturday night's entertainment was due to be a concert given by the Preville Big Band (photographs can be seen here), but Mother Nature had different plans.  Down came the rain and washed the concert out.  With a sudden opening in my schedule, I decided to try and rush out to find a spot to photograph the fireworks.  My first attempt was met with several people already taking up the prime spots, so I rushed back to Seaway Park for my 'emergency last resort' location.  I managed to find a spot there, but with so many traffic lights between the the fireworks and myself, the location doesn't lend very well to traditional 8" x 12" photographs.

However, by shooting with my wide angle lens and angling the camera further down the highway, this spot does allow me to create some fun 'wide angle' style photographs.  I end up with the fireworks on one end and then light streaks and traffic lights leading off into the other.  It was the turn of the United States of America to show off their colourful explosions.  It was the firm Pyrotecnico who had the honour of representing their Country.  Pyrotecnico has been creating fireworks displays since 1889 and their work has been seen at competitions, films & television, sporting events and concerts.

That final category probably played into the theme for their show, Rock Loves...Redux, an update on their show that earned the company a Golden Jupiter Award at the 2008 edition of this very competition.  The soundtrack featured terrific music from classic rock bands like Rush, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Poison, Foo Fighters, Guns 'N Roses and finshed off with AC/DC's classic, Shoot To Thrill.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 8sec, 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, 13sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  Here are some more photographs that I shot during the show.

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

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

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

Shoot to thrill they certainly did.  The mix of explosions and hard rock was more than enough to keep me entertained.  The earlier rain left a bit of humidity in the air which caused the smoke to stick around a little more than usual, but I've seen far worse during my years taking photographs of these shows.  This show will probably put Pyrotecnico back in the running for a second Golden Jupiter.  I guess we'll find out in a few weeks.

Preville Big Band In Longueuil

Saturday night's planned trip to the fireworks was put on hold as My Lovely Assistant discovered there was going to be a live music show near the Longueuil Metro.  It was a Ballroom Evening complete with the Preville Big Band providing the music. The Big Band got their start in Saint-Lambert twenty years ago and have made a name for themselves playing charitable events, weddings, and like last night, community shows.  They took the stage as part of the Saturday night dancing series that the city has been putting on.  Unlike Saint-Lambert crowds, the Big Band got the people of Longueuil out of their seats without much prodding.  Playing hits by artists as varied as Frank Sinatra, Pharrel Williams, Tina Turner and Earth, Wind and Fire among others.  They were due to keep playing until the fireworks were due to begin at 10:00PM, but a rather violent rain storm brought things to an end moments after they left the stage to end the first part of their show.  They were game to return, but city officials shut things down as the stage was flooded with water.  With lots of electric wires all over the place for the lights, amplifiers and instruments, it just wasn't safe for the show to go on.   The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1500sec, ISO 800 at 75mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 800 at 200mm and the third photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 800 at 200mm.  Here are several more photographs from their show.

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 800 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 800 at 170mm

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 800 at 180mm

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 800 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 800 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/500sec, ISO 800 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 800 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 800 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 800 at 105mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 800 at 100mm

f2.8, 1/160sec, ISO 800 at 200mm

Though cut short by the weather, it was a very entertaining show.  My Lovely Assistant tells me that they will be playing again in Saint-Lambert later in August, so maybe we'll see them here again on the blog.

Heavy Montreal Stage

Though I'm not attending Heavy Montreal this year, I still found a way to take in some of the music.  It may annoy some of the citizens of Saint-Lambert, but I love that fact that I can stroll down to Seaway Park, sit down on a bench and listen to the songs that are being played just across the river.  I was able to listen to some sets by Lee Aaron, Sword and Baroness in the afternoon, before returning in the evening to listen to some Rob Zombie while photographing the fireworks (photographs to come).  After the fireworks ended, I turned my camera to the stage just across from me and decided since I was there, why not try and snap off a few photographs.  The passing electric/telephone lines are a bit annoying but I thought the stage lights, skyscrapers and light streaks made an interesting photograph.  The photograph was taken at f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 68mm, cropped to 12"x4" and 12"x8".  Hope those of you who are going back out there today enjoy the show.

Full Moon Fever

Last night was one of those lunar events that seem to get a lot more press now then I ever remember when I was younger.  Mind you, I'm here putting a photograph of said lunar event on the old blog so I guess I'm not really in any position to make comment.  It was kind of a non-event for us North Americans as the eclipse wasn't visible for us, but the moon was still pretty large so I thought that I'd head out and give it a look.  The photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 100 at 200mm.  It kind of looks like a large cantaloupe, which reminds me, it's getting close to time for a little breakfast.  Maybe we'll get a real view of the eclipse next time around.

Montreal International Fireworks Competition - Philippines

It's a night off for L'International Des Feux Loto-Québec this week as we are down to one show a week.  This works out well since I can use to extra day to finally catch up with the shows.  These photographs are from this past Saturday night when the Philippines had their turn at blowing up the sky over Montreal.  Dragon Fireworks, established in 1992 and making their first appearance in Montreal, were in charge of the evening and themed their performance around the music of movies, television series and video games.  There's something cool about watching fireworks go off to the themes from Super Mario Bros, Tetris and The Imperial March from Star Wars. To shoot the photographs, I may have tip-toed into a restricted area.  I went under some police tape and snuck along a fence, as much as someone my size can sneak, into a grassy area between the Jacques Cartier Bridge and the highway that passed under it.  This gave me a clear view of the fireworks, the bridge and the highway,  which added some lights from the passing cars to the ones in the sky.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 51sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 24mm and the third photograph was taken at f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 24mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took during the show.

f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 24mm

There are still a couple of shows left, but I have an early contender for favourite fireworks photograph of the competition.  I really like the second photograph in this update.  There are three different kind of fireworks exploding and I also managed to keep the shutter open long enough to catch the lights of the passing police cars.  A little bit of skill, clandestine moves and luck.  An eventful evening indeed.

Montreal International Fireworks Competition - Canada

It's time to play a little bit of catch up here on the old blog.  The L'International des Feux Loto-Québec continued last night, but these photographs are of the fireworks display that took place last Wednesday evening.  On that night, the fireworks were put on by Canada, who were represented by the Apogée Fireworks company.  They have been in the business of lighting up the sky since 2001 and have won many different competitions.  I believe that this was their first time at this competition and they certainly put on a great show.  For this one, I decided to go back to a new location that I tried last year.  It's a wooden dock just down river from the site at the beginning of a bicycle path.  What I like about this location is that it allows me to not only shoot some traditional 8" x 12" photographs, but I can stretch them out as well.  I would use the fireworks to fill one end of the photograph and the Montreal Biosphere, which is always illuminated with different colours now, to fill the other.  The one drawback to this site is that since I'm standing on a wooden deck, anyone who happens to be passing by causes vibrations through the wood, which is not really something you want to be dealing with while doing long exposure photography.  Luckily, this ended up being a rather low traffic night.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 10sec, ISO 100 at 59mm and  the second and third photographs were taken at f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 59mm.  Here are some more photographs that I took during the show.

f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 59mm

f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 59mm

f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 59mm

It was another successful evening of fireworks and photography.  The tree line has grown near the front of the Biosphere so I'm not sure how many more times I'll be able to shoot from this location.  However, that will be a problem for another year.  It's hard to believe, but the competition is already half done.  Get out there and see some fireworks before it ends.

The Blues Berry Jam Band In Saint-Lambert

Here is how I end up getting behind on my photographs and my photography file keeps getting larger and larger.  Thursday night was supposed to be spend working on photographs of the fireworks from the night before, but it was so nice outside that My Lovely Assistant insisted that we go outside and take in the weather.  We ended up biking down to Saint-Lambert where they are currently having a summer concert series every Thursday downtown.  On the bill this week was The Blues Berry Jam Band.  First off, I loved the name so I was sold right away and off we went.  They played a great selection of classic blues and rock songs that even got the usually seated Saint-Lambert crowd to get up out of their seats and have a good time with the band.  From Chuck Berry to Janis Joplin and many other great songs along the way, The Blues Berry Jam Band put on a great show that was more than worth delaying a few fireworks photographs for.  Speaking of photographs, things got out of hand as usual and I found myself with several hundred shots from the show.  I've cut things down the the (large) selection below.  What can I say, I can't play a musical instrument to save my life, but I was hitting my shutter just as fast as Johnny B. Goode plays his guitar.  The first photograph was taken at f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 800 at 80mm and the second photograph was taken at f/3.2, 1/640sec, ISO 400 at 110mm.  Here are some other photographs I took during the show.

f/3.2, 1/640sec, ISO 400 at 165mm

f/5, 1/160sec, ISO 400 at 175mm

f/5, 1/16-sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/4, 1/200sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/250sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/3.2, 1/320sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 800 at 165mm

f/2.8, 1/200sec, ISO 800 at 135mm

f/4, 1/125sec, ISO 400 at 182mm

f/4, 1/20sec, ISO 400 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 800 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/320sec, ISO 800 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/400sec, ISO 800 at 200mm

f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 800 at 80mm

f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/125sec, ISO 800 at 70mm

f/2.8, 1/100sec, ISO 800 at 145mm

f/2.8, 1/100sec, ISO 800 at 160mm

f/2.8, 1/100sec, ISO 800 at 102mm

Another fine evening of music.  If ever The Blues Berry Jam Band is playing in your area, go out and check them out.  You can visit their Facebook page to find out where they will be playing.  As for the fireworks photographs, they'll hopefully find their way onto these pages before the 2019 edition begins.  I hope.