Montreal International Fireworks Competition - ABBA

Mamma Mia!  Yes folks, it is that time of the year once again.  It's time for the sky of Montreal to explode with colour as the annual L'International des Feux Loto-Québec is here.  Sunday was the opening of the annual contest, but I ended up running out of time to properly set-up as we were at a family dinner before to celebrate my brother's birthday (Happy Birthday Little Brother).  I got back in time for the show, but ended up having to choose a spot close to home to grab some photographs.  That's not really an issue as there are some good close locations, but I forgot to open my eyes wide enough while setting up and failed to notice a No-Parking sign just next to me.  All wasn't lost as I was able to crop most of the photographs to 12" x 4" or 12" x 6" and get rid of the offending sign, but it still served as a lesson to pay better attention to my viewfinder.  The fireworks were provided by Royal Pyrotechnie, probably the best fireworks company in Canada if you can judge such a thing by the fact that they are the only Canadian company to have won three Golden Jupiter awards at this competition.  This year they handled the opening musical tribute show, and the honoured artist was the Swedish supergroup of the 1970's, ABBA.   The conditions were perfect as there were no clouds in the sky and there was a strong enough breeze to blow the smoke away from the explosions.  The first photograph was taken at f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 51mm.  The second photograph was taken at f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 51mm and the third photograph was taken at f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 51mm.  Here are a few more photographs that I took during the show.

f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 51mm

f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 51mm

f/16, 15sec, ISO 100 at 51mm

f/16, 8sec, ISO 100 at 51mm

With that, the month of July got off to a bang!  Hopefully the weather will continue to be cooperative.  The shows go on rain or shine, but Your Friendly Neighbourhood Photographer doesn't really like to take his gear out in the rain.  Only time will tell, but if Mother Nature approves, you'll likely see some of these over the next few weeks.