Monday, December 21, 2009

More Christmas Fireworks on the Beach

Jeff Pardee, a friend of mine through the Western Pyrotechnic Association, alerted me to this fireworks shoot. Jeff is part of PyroInnovations. The show was off of the Balboa Pier in Newport Beach, CA, and was going to close out the annual Christmas Boat Parade for the first time.

At first, I thought I could shoot this from across the Newport Harbor, but all the good spots were taken up by houses. There was no real clear view of the harbor with the pier in the background. And I also committed a BIG mistake - I *assumed* what the time of the shoot will be.

With my trusty Garmin in hand, I drove to about a mile away from the pier (where the parking spots were quickly disappearing), parked in the middle of the road (you can do that there), plunked as many quarters into the meter as I had, then trecked up the strand towards the pier. The issue was - I thought the shoot was taking place around 6:30 p.m., but it was actually scheduled for 9 p.m.! I knew something was amiss as I walked towards the pier as there was little or no activity along the houses on the way. I was *almost* to the pier when I saw a sign announcing the start time at 9 p.m. (which is actually more traditional for fireworks). Knowing how much time was going to transpire, I also knew that my parking meter was going to run out. Soooo, I walked *almost* all the way back to my car where there was a convenience store along the road. I went in to purchase some Gatorade and munchies and asked for some quarters, only to learn that parking was free after 6 p.m.! Argh!

The walk back to the pier was a lot more casual now. I stopped at a bench about half way back again, slurped on some Gatorade and munched on Boston Baked Beans. There was still very little movement along the strand or in the houses. About an hour before show time, I walked to the pier to find a spot to set up my camera. I went out to where the water line was but the tide was high (again) and the surf kept rushing the beach. Not wanting to see how my gear would stand up to salt water, I went up on top of a berm they set up to protect the area against high tides.

I knew I was in a good area when another photographer (with the right gear) camped about 100 feet further back from the pier. Then I committed what I would consider a fatal error - thinking I was far enough back, I swapped out my wide angle lens for my wide-ish angle lens. (14mm to 24mm) Now I know why that other photographer was further away. And why did I swap out the lens? There's no real good answer to that. What I lost was some of the color in the reflection of the waves near the shore.

The show was very short (5 minutes), and the product was standard issue fireworks. There was about 100 people on the beach and parking area, but when the show ended the cacauphony of sound from the harbor confirmed that the majority of the spectators were on boats or homes out in the harbor area.

There's only one road in and out of the Balboa area, plus a couple of ferries. The traffic was gridlocked with everyone trying to leave at once. I stopped at an italian restaurant to wait out the surge, which my arthritic knees thanked me for! After some *great* pizza and some *nice* coffee, I hiked back to the car and headed home on now-open roads. All in all, it was about 5 miles (or so) hiked for a 5 minute fireworks show.

Was it worth it? You be the judge. The results are here on my Zenfolio page.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Christmas Fireworks in California

So I got word that the traditional Manhattan Beach,CA, fireworks show was a GO. This is a fireworks show that each year takes place about 2 weekends before Christmas. The show is built by Francis "Raven" Marquez and her Flying Monkeys Pyro Crew. The design of the show was done by John Noonan (who also works for Disney), the fireworks company is Fireworks America. This is a show that is *very* popular with the entire L.A. South Bay area. There's music, food, and lots of people. There are a LOT of houses built right on the beach front so this is a major party night.

Where I work, we participate in a local community "Holiday" (aka Christmas) Parade that takes place on the same day so I walk the parade route taking lots of pictures, then head down to the Manhattan Beach Pier for more walking -- all the time carrying camera gear. At the beach, I also take along my tripod.

I really like taking my fireworks pictures with some kind of reflection. Last year, I shot the show right at the edge of the waves from the Pacific Ocean. It was low tide and I was able to stand on the wet sand and get remarkable images. This year it was high tide so I decided to shoot from the Strand showing a spectator viewpoint. I try to capture more than just the fireworks. I walked down to the pier, then backtracked (north) watching the show site until I found a good spot. One of the problems with fireworks is the crowds, so you have to get there early to make sure you won't be shooting the back of any heads. I found a spot next to some nice folks on one of the benches that you can find along the way. It also stuck away from the walkway so I was guaranteed that nobody would be standing in front of me. As usual, the wind was coming onshore and it was rather cold. The nice part about the show is that because it's the winter time, they take advantage of the earlier onset of nighttime and they shoot it at 6:30 p.m. Nice! I get to get home before any other show would normally start!

I sat on the bench with a great couple who come down to watch the show from the northern L.A. area. About 45 minutes before show time, the Strand was standing room only. Because I was wearing my "Western Pyrotechnic Association" staff jacket, I started getting a lot of questions about fireworks. I love doing this, and it helped to pass the time. I also saw that vendors were selling those LED wands and necklaces. You know the kind - epilepsy on a stick. And yup, you'll see them in the pictures. (I *hate* those things!)

The spot I chose had a good blend of water reflection as well as showing the crowd that saw the show from the beach. It's a very Southern California thing to do anything on the beach all year round, and fireworks just seems to be on top of the list!

The pictures turned out VERY nicely. I also did some adjustments in Adobe Lightroom and put it up on my zenfolio page. Good stuff.