The Celebration of Light is an annual fireworks competition held in Vancouver. This year, three countries are competing, Vietnam, Brazil and Italy, on three nights over the course of the next week.
The competition is one of the city's most popular festivals, with up to 400,000 people gathering along the shores of English Bay. The fireworks are launched from a barge in the middle of the bay.
Large portions of downtown are closed off to traffic during the events. The streets around where I live were not part of these closures, so cars were parked in every available space -- a stark contrast to the Coal Harbour marina, which underwent a mass exodus as the boats headed off to get a good spot in the bay.
Very difficult to capture this well -- the start time of 10pm meant the sky was almost black, and getting an exposure that worked for the sky, the buildings, and the fireworks, while keeping it fast enough to not have the firework trails get *too* messy was a bit of a challenge.
Best viewed large -- also visible in the sky are two aircraft trails and three stars.
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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great shot....that WOULD be a very difficult shot to take, but you did it beautifully.....and it sounds like a really cool and fun event! thanks for sharing
@humphreyhippo Yes, along with about 20 others. I tried to get on the roof of this building's twin, but it turns out my pass doesn't work in their elevator -- as it happens, I think the view from my building was slightly less obstructed.
@glenda_b Yes, it's fascinating, a very clever design (and despite how unstable it looks, apparently one of Vancouver's most earthquake-resistant buildings).
A photo of it that I took a few months back is also being used on the Wikipedia page -- I get a very good view of it from the roof of my building.
Not sure I'd necessarily want to live there though -- it used to be offices, and most of the apartments are very long and narrow with only a small section of windows, as you'd expect from the design (except presumably the corner units). They always look quite dark inside in photos.
(As a bit of trivia, The Qube was used as the Phoenix Foundation headquarters in a few series of MacGyver -- back then it was standing virtually alone, whereas now it's surrounded by taller buildings).
Where you on the roof?
BTW- the architecture of the Qube condo building was fascinating-- great to see it in your photo :)
@glenda_b Yes, it's fascinating, a very clever design (and despite how unstable it looks, apparently one of Vancouver's most earthquake-resistant buildings).
A photo of it that I took a few months back is also being used on the Wikipedia page -- I get a very good view of it from the roof of my building.
Not sure I'd necessarily want to live there though -- it used to be offices, and most of the apartments are very long and narrow with only a small section of windows, as you'd expect from the design (except presumably the corner units). They always look quite dark inside in photos.
(As a bit of trivia, The Qube was used as the Phoenix Foundation headquarters in a few series of MacGyver -- back then it was standing virtually alone, whereas now it's surrounded by taller buildings).