Fireworks Light Trail #2

Today I have only an appointment to go to and the rest of the day is free, hooray! Unfortunately my appointment is timed so that gym will not be possible, so I'll need to go for my walk at about 4 o'clock. Other than that, I intend to be fairly productive today with some more craft cupboard (re)sorting, some bathroom sorting and hopefully some scrapbooking and/or card-making. In the kitchen I am hoping I'll have time to make up some fruit salad and some banana bread. What does your Friday look set to include?

Fireworks making light trails in the evening sky:

I snapped this with my camera set up on its tripod for steadiness at the 2009 RiverFire celebrations. I used a combination of the fireworks settings and the night settings to grab photos all night and I think this one was set to "night".

Lights: Ferris Wheel

Welcome to another Monday! It's early morning and the birds have beaten me up again - Summer is definitely on its way over here, despite the chill still in the air overnight.

Ekka Ferris Wheel at night:

I love Brisbane's Exhibition - from the quiet arts competition entries to the busy-ness and bustle of the Sideshow Pavillion, and all the things in between, and I love that there are so many opportunities for photographs of all kinds. As evening turned into full dark on my '09 visit, I stole down into Sideshow Alley and found myself a quiet spot to photograph the beautifully lit up rides and attractions.

This Ferris Wheel shot was taken on the 'night' setting, quite zoomed in, while I braced myself and my camera against a pole. I love the way the night sky makes the colours really 'pop'.

"Lights: Ferris Wheel" is part of my Ekka series.

Night Lights

It's been a busy day! We celebrated my niece's birthday early as it falls on December 24th and she'll be with her mother (plus that whole, "it's right on top of Christmas" thing); so that meant heading up to my brother's place -- and, wouldn't you know it, it bucketed down today!

Lights on the Noosa river in Noosaville:

After a day spent having fun, my English friend and I went for a walk along the Noosa River so I could practice taking some night time shots. In between a couple of failed experiments (including one where I laid my tripod down and took unsuccessful photos outside the railing), I snapped this one of a couple of boats in the darkness. I was using the night setting, a two second timer and my camera on its tripod to minimise camera shake. This seems to be my best bet re camera shake, as an external button isn't available for my model (boo!) and anything less than this tends to result in very blurred images.

Ninth Birthday

Ack, when did it get so late and how did that happen without my noticing? I'm afraid you'll just have to pretend it's an hour ago, so I got a post in on Thursday. ;)

Make a wish and blow out the candles:

On my niece's ninth birthday, I was trying to get a shot of the candles in the dark as she blew them out... and I seem to have caught it at a perfect moment. I know it's grainy, but I'm really fond of it, especially because when you print it out, once you get it in just the right light, you can see the face - the rest of the time it's too dark!

City Fireworks

Man. I don't know if Blogger's been having issues this morning, or if it's just been my internet (which has definitely [also] been having issues). Either way, it's driving me nuts.

Fireworks over Brisbane, from South Bank:

 Erica and I were discussing the power of black & white photography one day, and after making the comment that "all photographs" looked amazing in black and white, she rethought that, then began to ponder whether certain topics would look better that way after all. Turns out, even fireworks have the potential to look awesome in black & white, sometimes.

This was taken in full colour, on the "fireworks" setting, and later converted to black and white.

Light Bursts

Good morning! An early post today: the birds are chirping, the sun is quite possibly shining and I can smell my mother's breakfast toast. None of that bears any resemblance to today's photo, but there you have it.

Some of the September 2010 Riverfire fireworks:

I love fireworks, truly. Sometimes the bangs get to me, but the beautiful colours in the sky are so worth it all. Trying to take photographs of fireworks, on the other hand, sometimes annoys me; especially as I have tendencies towards what is arguably the worst case of camera shake in history - oftentimes, even with the use of a tripod. Every now and then I get a shot that I feel is worth it; during Riverfire this year I even managed to get a couple. This was taken at night (obviously) using my beloved tripod and the "fireworks" setting, and is part of my "fireworks" series.

From Another Angle

Ack, I'm doing well at this "post in the morning" thing, as you can see! Maybe tomorrow I'll be back on track. Anyway, here's today's photo.

Another's camera, caught in the limelight:

This should probably have been my opening photo for this blog, but I'd forgotten about it at the time. While waiting for the fireworks to start at the 2010 Brisbane Exhibition, I was looking past my friends and it occurred to me to take this photo. My Kodak was set to either night or fireworks (I don't remember which) at the time.