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Sunday, November 05, 2006

Frugal fireworks


Watched the St. Helen's firework display from the comfort of my living room, just over an hour ago. As usual, the display that was meant to commence at 19.30, didn't start until 19.43. I guess when they advertise the start time each year as 19.30, that must be 19.30 council time. As we all know, the council's concepts of time, space and just about anything else, are widely at odds with those of normal human beings.

I hadn't intended to try to take pics, because the thought of trying to get the exposure and God knows what else right, for the night time photography of fast-moving objects two miles away, really didn't appeal to me. However, I started messing with the features of the camera, most of which are a mystery to me, and discovered it has a pre-set specifically for snapping shots of fireworks. So I gave it a go, with varying results. I don't suppose some of these shots turned out too badly, considering I had to contend with windows which kept steaming up, no tripod to steady the camera, and a distance of some two miles to try to compensate for.









The most annoying thing I had to deal with, was the slowness of the shutter speed on this setting. I initially blamed the memory card for the long delay in processing shots, although it's a high speed one. But even when I switched to the camera's internal memory, the same length of delay was evident, so it was obviously meant to be that way, due to the camera settings, lighting conditions, etc.









I ended up missing a lot of potentially good shots, due to the long exposure time and resultant slow shutter speed.





The St. Helen's display usually has a grand finale, which I had the camera primed for. The so-called grand finale lasted about three seconds, and I missed most of it.



This year's display really was the stingiest I have ever seen. I don't know what the entertainment was like at the ground, but as far as the actual display itself was concerned, it was an example of civic abstemiousness at its very worst. I can remember when the display lasted at least half an hour. It was a bare twenty minutes tonight, if that, considering the lengthy breaks between some parts of the display. Oh well, I guess that's what happens when councillors become obsessed with bendy buses, and a load of old balls on the Museum Green.

2 comments:

Chris E said...

You're too hard on youself. I watched the fireworks from somewhere which must have been pretty close to your neck of teh woods and find your pics of them rather impressive. I did not even try to bother to capture them on my camera so good on ya.

Siani said...

Thanks, Chris. I'd have been lost without the fireworks preset, as I have no clue how to adjust exposure, light, etc.

 
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