02/03/2021
This was my third year of attempting to try and photograph the annual Gallaghers Fireworks display.
Veasna's first time was in 2018. She guessed vaguely where the fireworks would be launched from and found a viewing spot near the road so her family and self could beat the traffic after the show. The result was some blurry fireworks exploding over the top of a tree line, so I decided to be a bit more prepared next time around.
The second time I tired was in 2020. Having watched a bunch of YouTube videos about fireworks photography before hand, my family and I came down to the lake front right near the water to have a picnic dinner. I had time to setup my camera and compose my shots, and when the fireworks start she discovered that she was facing in the wrong direction and to turn 90 degrees to my right. The resulting images weren't too bad given the last second repositioning.
With the lessons learned from those previous attempts, She then decided to take some time to visit the lake in the afternoon to look around and saw the fireworks being setup on a raft. When she returned in the evening with her family for a picnic, Veasna was able to see the raft in the middle of the lake and choose a nice spot for us to eat a wait for the fireworks.
The only hiccup she had was when about 2 minutes from the end of the fireworks display her camera's battery ran out. She instantly panicked, fumbled in the dark to open the battery compartment, however during her fumbling the battery flap fell off my camera into my hand, and I decided to call it a night. So I did miss capturing any images of the finale of the display, but I suppose that's something I can do the next time.
Photo Credit: Veasna Long from the Hamilton Photography Group.
Location: Hamilton Lake Domain, Hamilton, NZ