This may have been because the fireworks had been postponed from the night before, because it rained. Or it could have been because it was still threatening to rain - to the point where they started the show about a half hour early. Whatever the reason, it worked out to my benefit - which is all that really matters.
Due to the overwhelming response that I had from posting my photos last year (thanks Helaina), I figured I would regale you with some stunning photos from this year’s festivities. Hope you’re sitting down!
Here is a perfect example of my patented technique of pressing the shutter (assuming that cameras still have shutters) either way too early or way too late. I'm not sure which one this was, but I'm pretty sure it might have been awesome - either two seconds earlier or two seconds afterwards.
This one gets pretty close. The smoke leads me to believe that I might have been a little too late on this one. By the way, that tower you see at the bottom of the photo is the same tower that Sam and I walked up to, just a couple of days before. I kind of think that knowing this, makes this picture even more breathtaking.
Ok, now we're really getting pretty close. I think this one was also late - but not quite as late as the one above it.
What I like about this picture is that I like to imagine that this is a picture of a wormhole opening in up space - and this is right before the aliens come bursting through to put us out of our misery.
And I like to imagine that this is one of the aliens - looking like a giant, electrified jelly fish, hovering over the crowd. As far as pictures of fireworks go, it's not that great. But boy, if this really was an alien, I'd say it's a pretty good shot.
Now I'm really getting the hang of it. Unfortunately, the show was over shortly after I took this one. Between this photo and the first one, I have another thirty or so pictures of varying quality, which I didn't bother to show. Maybe I'll save them for another time.
This might be my favorite picture of the night - completely unretouched! This was taken at the end of the festivities, during the "Hurry Up and Pick Up Your Stuff So We Can Get the Hell Out of Here and Beat the Crowd" portion of the show.
The thing about this ritual is that the entire crowd has the exact same mentality, so you're moving in one big mass of people, all of us trying to make it back to our cars and then all of us trying to get our cars out onto the road. But I do it every year. It's kind of a challenge. If I get ahead of just one person, I feel a huge sense of accomplishment. And if I don't hit anybody with my car on the way out, that's pretty good too.
What I like about this photo is the fact that it looks about as frenetic as it feels - and I like that it fits into my earlier alien motif, as well. Try picturing the crowd running and screaming and trampling each other- even though they weren't. Still, it's kind of cool to think about.
By the way, the back the head you see in the foreground is Sam, walking briskly ahead of me - pretty much like usual.
Anyway, there you have it. Another awesome display of fireworks. We'll do it again next year. And if not, I have plenty more photos I can use.
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