It's pretty hard to get me in a bad mood while photographing fireworks, especially during the International Des Feux Loto-Quebec, but such an occurrence took place this past Sunday. The weather was miserably hot and humid all day so I thought I'd stay close to home and shoot some photographs from Seaway Park. It doesn't offer the greatest view of the fireworks, but it allows me to take some nice wide angle style photographs of the explosions and the light streaks of the passing cars as they go down Route 132. Things got off to a bad start when a couple of cars rear-ended each other minutes before the show was to start. Over all of my years photographing the fireworks, I'd been amazed at how many near-accidents I had seen from my various vantage points, and it finally happened. This caused a traffic line-up which ruined some of my early shots as the cars weren't moving, which meant I was getting shots of parked cars rather than light streaks. Minutes later, the traffic let up, but when a passing patrol car stopped, right in my shooting line. The cop finally left, only to be replaced by a tow truck. I'd finally had enough and moved to another spot, only to be met with a mass of fireworks fans who were enjoying some of our Country's now legal smoking materials. That was it, I had enough. There were still another ten minutes to go, but I was as steamed as the weather and packed up my gear and headed for home. As a result, there are several odd crops here and lots of annoying traffic cones, though I suppose those are now as much a part of Montreal as the fireworks themselves. The first photograph was taken at f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 50mm and the second photograph was taken at f/16, 13sec, ISO 100 at 50mm. Here are some more of my photographs taken that night.
f/16, 20sec, ISO 100 at 50mm
f/16, 13sc, ISO 100 at 50mm
f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 50mm
f/16, 25sec, ISO 100 at 50mm
f/16, 30sec, ISO 100 at 50mm
All complaining aside, the show was very fun to watch. It was the turn of the Home Team, Canada, to light up the sky. Doing so was BEM Feux d’artifice from Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec. They've been in the business for 50 years and this was their fourth appearance in the competition where they won a Bronze Jupiter back in 2005. Sob story aside, it was another fine show as the competition is beginning to wind down. Head out before it ends.
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