Sunday, January 02, 2022

New Year's Eve Fireworks

As I had hoped, I did get out to the township's New Years Eve fireworks display. It has been two-and-a-half years since I last photographed our town's fireworks on Canada Day, July 01. I sure hope they go ahead with it this year. Can't let COVID win everything.

Bob being Bob, we arrived almost an hour-and-a-half before the start. Bob is habitually better than punctual, but it was for good reason on this occasion if you look at the gate below.


Just inside the gate is the best place for photos. Bob parked in front so no one could drive in that way. They could still walk in but not drive in and obscure the view. It would have only prevented about six cars from filling the lane, but it made a big difference for us. Bob is a semi-official photographer for this event, so it was a measure that he felt empowered to take.

Speaking of gates and lights, doesn't the above photo look pretty? This ↓ is a photo of the old schoolhouse that you saw (above) beyond that gate. The crooked tree could drive a photographer crazy, and I felt compelled to straighten it in my fireworks photos.


There were other lighted outbuildings to the left of the gate. They were also very appealing.


When I have photographed fireworks here in town, I have been at a distance and used a telephoto lens. Here, I was close and decided to use my wide angle lens after some experimentation. That I had time to experiment and set up properly was a benefit of arriving so early.

I decided to place the tripod and camera just inside the gate with the widest setting that I could attain, which was 15mm. My hope was to look straight down the lane and capture the fireworks which would, hopefully line up. But I also wanted to capture enough of the buildings to draw some foreground interest. It worked pretty well although I ended up cropping much of the sky above the fireworks and some of the lane too. There might have been better setups, but you can't change you mind when the fireworks are in progress because they don't last for much more than 15 minutes.

With all of that palaver out of the way, here are three photos. I will be showing more firework photos in due course, some maybe even tomorrow. (Please observe the straightened tree at the right.)




I loved being able to do this again. It was only around freezing, and I was dressed warmly, so it was a lot of fun.

That was New Years Eve. We binge-watched Crime on Britbox on New Years Day. It was an interesting and very unusual police drama.

FYI for anyone who is wondering, I always shoot fireworks at ISO100, f11, 4 seconds. While there may be other good settings, it works, and fireworks are brief, so one just wants to shoot and not faff around with settings. So once I have everything dialed in, I don't touch anything for the duration of the show.



16 comments:

Boud said...

What fun! I wonder how many people take firework pictures with their phones and get pinpoints in the pix!

Jenn Jilks said...

These are amazing! Really well done, AC.

Marie Smith said...

How wonderful to be able to photograph the fireworks again. Maybe 2022 is hopeful after all?

Barbara Rogers said...

Excellent work there! Loved that the crooked tree has been altered! Nothing like bringing a wayward pupil to attention!

Haddock said...

4 secs..... no wonder you can capture them so cearly.

Patio Postcards said...

Good photos of the fireworks. Thanks for the tidbit of info of how your capture your firework photos. Happy 2022.

Marcia said...

You know those lighted buildings stand out as fireworks in their own right along side the real fireworks. Neat!

Red said...

Well done! I would always be about ten minutes behind each pop and just get some night sky!

Rita said...

No fireworks here on New Years. Looks like fun--but cold.
I will have to check out Crime. I am currently watching McDonald & Dobbs, enjoying it very much, and hoping they keep making more. :)

William Kendall said...

Gorgeous!

The Furry Gnome said...

Good exposures on those fireworks photos! I did that once or twice and learned a lot trying it.

Joanne Noragon said...

Well done!

Margaret said...

Those are beautiful! I've never had much luck photographing fireworks. That's great that you got to do this outing.

Christina said...

It looks like a fairytale landscape. I love your photos, the outbuildings and the no longer wonky tree make the fireworks stand out beautifully. It is good to get a measure of perspective like that.

Jeanie said...

These photos are wonderful, with the lighted buildings in the foreground. Really stunning and a wonderful experience for you, I know. Happy New Year!

MARY G said...

Those are quite, quite splendid. Great depth. Nice straight tree, snicker. Youi would have your work cut out for you with Gilmour Christmas trees. This year was an exception - it was straight.