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.
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