Fireworks at Winterlude 2012

Fireworks at Winterlude 2012 in Canada’s National Capital.

This year I set up my tripod and camera at the back of the crowd that had gathered between the Parliament Buildings and the river. From my vantage point, I could see the fireworks that were fired high in the air without any difficulty but could only see the upper portion of the fireworks that were being fired off closer to the river. These lower level fireworks were creating a heavy cloud of smoke which was lifting up from the lower levels fairly slowly with only a light breeze blowing.

It was also snowing and this was the first time that I had tried to photograph fireworks with snow falling at the same time. In addition, beams of light were reflecting off the billowing smoke and giving some additional interesting effects. In the end, the combination of smoke and lights provided a much different photographic opportunity than I had expected when I first saw the billowing smoke.

The fireworks had started shortly after 9PM and lasted about 20 minutes and by the time I took this last photo of the Peace Tower I was almost the last person on the hill. The flag gives the impression that there was strong breeze blowing but that is the effect of a long photographic exposure in the available light.

After the fireworks show was over, I followed a stream of people heading over to Confederation Park where the carvers were hard at work creating their ice masterpieces. Follow me there :-): Ice Carving – Winterlude 2012 (Bal de Neige) – Confederation Park, Ottawa, Ontario.