Canada Day Part 2: Fireworks

I hadn't ever tried to photograph fireworks until Canada Day 2017. On a a very cold night, I shot from the bedroom window, which gives us a pretty good view even a mile from the site. I got some pretty nice shots. Perhaps this one was the best.

Last year, 2018, Canada Day was frequently rainy. I thought that they would postpone the show, but they went ahead at the last minute. Once again, we looked on and photographed from the second floor of our townhouse.

As happy as I was with them, I didn't want to do the same thing this year. The weather was very good all day, so about an hour before the show began on Monday night, we went to the former railway bridge which is now part of a hiking trail. There, one can look upriver to town hall and hopefully catch the fireworks above and beyond it.

I didn't know how it was going to go, but it turned out that I had the image framed just about right. But I couldn't really tell from the LCD screen whether I was getting good shots or not. And since the fireworks keep on coming and coming I didn't want to take the time to check closely. Nope: I just kept firing and hoping for the best.

Once I saw the images on the computer, I realized that it had worked out well. Of course, one always needs to edit images somewhat, especially when shooting in RAW, but the point is that I had good files even in the RAW stage.

As I looked through my many many shots, I saw that my favourite shots seemed to be the ones that had a display right behind the spire with more fireworks going off above.

This was the first shot that I processed. It drew much notice on our town photography fb page, and a local newspaper wants to use it in their next edition. Not that I'm bragging, you understand, for I try not to do that (he said modestly); I'm just relating the tale.

The tower clock shows up well, and the part of the town hall to the bottom right along with the falls helps to balance the photo, or at least I think so. I do wish that it wasn't quite so black to the bottom left, and I have a thought about working around that next year if I am still here and able to shoot the event again. Meanwhile, I am quite chuffed at how it turned out, and the ones below too.

As the event goes on, the smoke builds up (to the right).
Some dislike this in their photos, but I don't mind the effect.

I can probably work through another bunch of similar photos, and I probably will at some point, but today I am scheduled to shoot the ladyslipper orchids with a friend, and Celtfest will take place this weekend, so I may not get back to fireworks for awhile. And that is okay.