Celebration Of Light 2014 - Day 3 - Japan

Saturday evening saw the third and final of the three fireworks displays that make up the Celebration of Light festival in Vancouver, this one by... more

by Alexis Birkill

Title

Celebration Of Light 2014 - Day 3 - Japan

Artist

Alexis Birkill

Medium

Photograph

Description

Saturday evening saw the third and final of the three fireworks displays that make up the Celebration of Light festival in Vancouver, this one by Team Japan. Continuing on my panoramic theme, for this final display I decided to give Burnaby Mountain a try, approximately 15 kilometres east of downtown.

I had thought that, with this being a relatively distant viewpoint, and with the fireworks being launched on the far side of downtown, that there wouldn't be many people at this viewpoint, but I couldn't have been more wrong -- it was packed! Fortunately I was still able to grab the best spot for photography, giving a clear view without obstructions from the surrounding trees.

The weather on Saturday night turned considerably more humid, giving a beautiful red glow on the horizon from the sunset, but also resulted in challenging shooting conditions at this distance, made worse as the smoke from the fireworks started to build up. However, I wasn't going to let that stop me, and once again set up to take the panorama using my 70-300mm lens at 300mm with a 1.4x teleconverter.

On the far left is BC Place, lit up in the colours of the rainbow for Vancouver Pride this weekend, with the downtown buildings centrally, and Coal Harbour towards the right. The tallest building in Vancouver, the Shangri-La, is silhouetted by the fireworks in this photo. The big glow of orange lights, emphasised by the humid air reflecting it, is the Vancouver Docks, and the bright road is Hastings Road. In the background, the hills of Vancouver Island can be seen silhouetted against the last bit of post-sunset glow in the sky.

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August 4th, 2014