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The display waxed and waned in unpredictable fashion with periodic climax which convinced me on more than one occasion that this was the big finally and the display was about to end, however it kept going and produced more surprises.
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In this image, and in some of the others below, you can see my favourite type of rocket which I call 'comets' because they remind me of comet Hale-Bopp with their intense white heads and curved tails which shot upwards high into the sky while curving gracefully overhead on their parabolic orbits, it was almost as if they were alive with an animal-like personality (if you know what I mean). While the comets soared into the sky other rockets of red and blue would spray outward from the fiery nucleus of activity like arteries. The display was going perfectly to plan except for one hitch. A large 'comet' misfired for some reason, perhaps because of another collision, then shot out from the heart of the launchers and raced across the pitch at high speed from R to L in a horizontal manner before slamming into the back of someone's house or shed with a flash of light. During that brief instance of light I could see the shape of a person who had come very close to getting slammed by the huge rocket, he was very lucky indeed, however I couldn't be sure if it had actually missed him or not, I wasn't the only one who thought that because the ambulance team ran over to the scene to check him out.
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I missed that dangerous stray rocket because it was out of frame to the L, however I did catch the moment when tragedy struck the organised launchers. This is a deep crop of the first image showing all sorts of chaos going on.
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The stunning show continued without a break and so did my image taking, this moment in time was very intense as more rockets filled the sky with light and sound which I could actually feel as the sound wave blasted across the pitch. The bottom of this image is overexposed however I like it because it shows a really dramatic piece of the action as the smoke pooled in the pitch and got illuminated by the explosions, it really did feel like a war zone.
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Deep crop of the white hot action as the mini V-5 rockets shot skyward while I could hear WOWs from the crowd behind us. You can see the other rockets in there waiting to go up.
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This was followed by the climax of the show as more comets and Banshees screamed, roared, and hissed in an orgy of light and sound. I looked to the R and saw that Conor was taking video footage with his Iphone, which turned out fantastic.
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For me this was the most visually spectacular and photogenic part of the display, there was just so much going on that I couldn't possibly do it justice with words.
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Again this is 18mm vertical yet some of those rockets went far above the frame, I was able to crane my neck back and see the comets curving in flight directly overhead, the height really was impressive, this is the way a fireworks display should be enjoyed, up close and personal at close range, when that happens it changes from a display to an experience. For those interested the above two images are 8 sec's.
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This one looks like some kind of flower
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This image has got to be the most bizarre of the lot, check out the haunting structure, I have never captured an effect that like before on an image. The display ended and the pitch turned back to semi darkness while the audience applauded in appreciation. It was a very good display indeed, easily the best I have seen in years so I was more than delighted that I made the effort to come down and shoot it. I couldn't believe it when I checked my camera, I had some how taken 48 exposures!.
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As the crowd retreated I took this exposure of the residue fireworks smoke mixing with the fog as it glowed over the pitch thanks to the security lights nearby, quite a scenic end to a fun evening.
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Later Conor and I went back out for another photo shoot, this time to the N coast where we spent some time admiring the absolutely stunning star fields and glowing Milky Way bands which were amazing. The view across the Atlantic Ocean towards the N was pitch black with Ursa Major showing more stars than I had seen before, we both agreed that this would be a stunning place to shoot aurora from. I made one big mistake though, when I arrived on the beach I realised that I had no battery with me, it was sitting at home on the charger, I couldn't believe I made such an error!. All was not lost though as Conor decided to share his battery with me, it was the 500D Canon so it would fit my 450D too, and this was what we did, Conor took exposures then when he was finished I took my own which was a productive way of doing things. We observed bright Orionid meteors and a mag -7 fireball followed by the stunning rise of the waning quarter Moon which sported a Halloween-style orange colour complete with Moon illusion, it looked enormous above the horizon with pale light reflecting on the sandy shore before being dissected by several strips of dark cloud, we both wished we had a zoom lens with us to shoot it. The night ended with this image taken during the early morning hours of Halloween looking W towards the old ruins of Downhill Temple which made a fitting and memorable end to the night. Thanks for reading.
Martin McKenna