Big bang

The hard part of getting fireworks photos is finding a good place to set up. I figure if I got a spot down by the Ottawa River everything would be peachy. Unfortunately when I got to the area near the locks it had been blocked off. I guess the police don't like the thought of thousands of drunks wandering around down there, and I can see their point. I spent a fair amount of time running around, and after a bit of back-and-forthing I set up near the National Arts Centre, on the ramp that leads down to the driveway.

First I took a photo near the Canal. Turned out a bit wide.



This one was pitched a bit high ... you can already see the smoke building up.



Then I walked up to the lane itself ... unfortuntely some of the NAC got into this shot and several others.



Now I think I'm getting the hang of it.



Another nice one.



A slightly wider angle to take in the convention centre.



A nice vertical, but a bit off-centre ...



I should have gotten the bicyclist's name.



Squiggly!



The shadowy figure at left was illuminated by successive blasts.



A whole lot of smoke now.



If you go to my Flickr stream you can see the fireworks wind down.



Next year I'm going to see if I can find a place that's got the Parliament Buildings in the background.

Hello Queenie

Okay, so it's not quite July 1, but Victoria Day gets its fireworks too. They're launched from Juliana Park near Dow's Lake. For once being a bit late was a blessing in disguise. I orginally thought the best view would be from the south shore of Dow's Lake. As it turned out the pathway along Colonel By was a better choice.

My first shot seems to be mostly smoke and car lights.



That's a little better, albeit not exactly horizontal. And off centre. Oh well, it was hard to tell which knob did what on the tripod in the dark.



The settings seem good though ... I think I'll reduce the ISO and bump up the time a bit next time, though.



I'm not sure where the squigly thing comes from - some kid's bottle rocket, perhaps?



The white things really lit stuff up.



I hope they didn't light anything on fire by accident ...



Okay, something moved a bit ...



And that's all she wrote, except for watching the traffic drive home.



I'm going to to try to make my next fireworks photos a tad more level ...

Baby, it's cold outside

Well to be honest it's rather mild. We're in the middle of a wet, snowy spell. I got a Fujifilm Finepix F200 EXR from my mother for Christmas to take with me when lugging the DSLR around would be inconvenient (i.e. most of the time).


Near South Keys transit station after freezing rain, Dec. 27, 2009


Near South Keys transit station after freezing rain, Dec. 27, 2009

I may actually be updating The Other Side of the Shutter more than once a year now ...