Last night an unannounced firework display took place outside the Convention Centre near my apartment. We occasionally get these displays, usually as a result of some corporate event at the centre, and they are never publicised to avoid the crowds that would gather and the cost of making sure they were safe, clearing up after them, etc.
As I watched the display, or more accurately the reflections of it as I can't see quite this far east, I wished I'd known about it to be able to photograph it. As it drew to a close I checked my watch and saw that it had run from 10:30pm to 10:38pm, and it occurred to me that, had I set off straight away, I could maybe have got to the roof in time to photograph it. Of course, by then the grand finale was underway and there was no hope.
Imagine my surprise when, at 10:30pm tonight, another display started!
It was 10:31pm by the time the noise of the fireworks disturbed me enough from what I was working on for me to notice them.
It was 10:33pm by the time I'd put my shoes on, collected the camera, memory card and battery from the far ends of the apartment, and was locking the door behind me. (My camera is always ready to go -- except when I need it to be!)
It was 10:36pm by the time I'd paced around waiting for the elevator, ridden up the 10 floors to the highest floor it reaches, run up the remaining two flights of service stairs, got onto the roof, and moved to the north end of it.
It was 10:37pm by the time I'd set up the tripod (which I'd been extending as I ran up the stairs), put the camera on it, removed the lens cap, shoved the battery and memory card into it, zoomed it, focused it, and dialed in some completely-guesswork settings.
The last of the fireworks finished at 10:38pm, and I'd managed to take just two shots of them, one that was a bit too overexposed.
So this certainly isn't the best firework photo I've taken (the composition is a bit lacking, there is too much smoke as the show was nearly over, it was too dark so I had to push the shadows quite a lot, and the clouds made for some weird colours in the sky), but it was certainly the most hectic!
P.S. I've just returned from a trip down to San Francisco, so I hope to be posting some shots from there shortly too!
I'm a British software developer and photographer living in Vancouver, BC. I mainly photograph landscapes, cityscapes, night scenes, and water.
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I loved your description of how you achieved this, I though it was just me that ran around like a crazy thing when a photo opportunity comes out of the blue!
Instant fav!