July 14 2012

I guess being that it’s Bastille Day it should have been France letting off the fireworks tonight, but instead it was Canada who took their turn to light up the Montreal skyline at the International des Feux Loto Quebec competition…France is next Saturday, after newcomer Greece take their turn to wow the crowds and judges on Tuesday.

Canada were following Japan (who – in my opinion – are leading the way) and Switzerland in the annual firework competition that is held at Laronde amusement park every summer. The Canadian team were from Sirius Pyrotechnics who did the displays for the Vancouver Winter Olympics and was the first time the company has participated in the Montreal competition.

If you read the previous posts on the fireworks, you will know I am trying different locations to view the firework displays. This week I headed up to the top of Mount Royal and joined the fairly big crowd at the chalet lookout. I fortunately managed to get a spot next to the balustrade and was able to rest my tripod on the ledge. Not the best option since the balustrade isn’t that wide and so the tripod was not that steady. I made sure I had the camera strap round my neck so as not to lose my camera over the long drop the other side !

One big problem I had this week was that I somehow lost my remote trigger and so ended up having to hold my finger on the shutter release in bulb mode, resulting in camera shake on many images 🙁  I did read somewhere during my research on shooting fireworks that shaking the camera (or kicking the tripod) was something worth trying –  I can now cross that off my list as done 🙂

International des Feux Loto Quebec – Canada
ISO 100 – 98mm – f16 – 4.3 sec

Firework competition seen from Mount Royal
ISO 100 – 112mm – f16 – 3.2 sec

Firework competition as seen from Mount Royal
ISO 100 – 155mm – f16 – 4.6 sec

International des Feux Loto Quebec – Canada
ISO 100 – 100mm – f16 – 7.3 sec

International des Feux Loto Quebec – Canada
ISO 100 – 300mm – f16 – 1.6 sec

Since I expected problems with camera shake, I thought I would at least try some experimenting. The first was to pull the zoom during exposure. I think this really works best when you only have the fireworks in the frame, but quite like how the street lamps on the few test shots came out, although would have been better without the shake effect 🙁

Pulled zoom firework experiment
ISO 100 – varied mm – f16 – 2.7 sec

Pulled zoom firework experiment
ISO 100 – varied mm – f16 – 6 sec

Another experiment I tried was covering the lens with my hand (I forgot to bring my hat) between firework bursts to get a multiple exposure effect.

Multiple exposure firework experiment
ISO 100 – 135mm – f16 – 6 sec

Multiple exposure firework experiment
ISO 100 – 155mm – f16 – 15 sec

The final experiment I tried was to pull the focus during an exposure. I’ve seen some great examples of this technique on the web and need to practice this some more (along with the other techniques).

Pulled focus exposure firework experiment
ISO 100 – 240mm – f16 – 4.8 sec

Pulled focus exposure firework experiment
ISO 100 – 165mm – f16 – 6.4 sec

Pulled focus exposure firework experiment
ISO 100 – 165mm – f16 – 7.1 sec

Pulled focus exposure firework experiment
ISO 100 – 165mm – f16 – 6.4 sec

The last image was yet another experiment – although this time in post processing. Since the firework busts were white  I thought I would process as a B&W shot.

Black and White Firework shot
ISO 100 – 155mm – f16 – 5.2 sec

I hope to get a replacement remote trigger next week in time for France, but likely not have one for Greece – maybe more experimenting on Tuesday (or I will go for fixed exposure times).

To view images in gallery format, simply click on one of the images below.

For any French readers out there – Hope you had a wonderful Bastille Day….VIVE LA FRANCE !!!

Thanks for stopping by. Until next time.

– Martin

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