Hurray for fireworks! Both Drexel Hill and Upper Darby did their fireworks displays last night. Philadelphia appears to have done theirs on Saturday. We went to the Upper Darby ones and they were pretty entertaining. While I appreciate the desire to have a holiday weekend event like fireworks on an actual weekend, I’m a bit baffled too. Both the town (Drexel Hill) and the township (UD) did their displays on the same night, half an hour apart and almost within sight of each other. When we were walking down to the High School for the Upper Darby fireworks, we caught glimpses of the Drexel Hill display at the Middle School through the trees in the cememtery. What baffles me is why would they put on 2 displays so close together the same night? Why not do one on the weekend and one on the 4th? While, had I known, it would have amused me to go to both, it seems silly to jam it all into one night. Okay, yes, I’m greedy when it comes to fireworks. But but but… the kids would love 2 nights of fireworks too!!!
Once upon a time, in Vancouver, I spent several lovely nights sitting on the beach watching fireworks over English Bay. They are still by far the best fireworks displays I’ve ever seen, in part because they were set to music. The festival didn’t happen for a couple years, I heard, due to regulations regarding tobacco company advertising/sponsorship. The International Fireworks Festival is back now - this time sponsored by a bank instead of a tobacco company. The festival brings in 3 teams of pyrotechnics artists for spectacular 30-45 minute dispays. The finale nights are amazing because all three teams get to show off. Unfortunately, this year’s festival is the first week of Pennsic. Maybe next year I’ll splurge on a trip out for fireworks! Hopefully we’ll be able to find some on the 4th too!
Obviously, I brought the camera along last night. It was beautiful weather and we didn’t bother to go down into the crowds at the HS itself but instead hung out on the sidewalk across the street. The view was actually pretty good. There were some low fireworks we couldn’t see as well, but we could see most of the display over the school. It was worth it to avoid the massive crowd.
I took about 160 photos hoping for about a 10% return in good shots. I ended up with about 20% of the photos being good enough that I might share them but I can’t bring myself to delete any of the others. Even the horribly long exposures make for interesting photos. Some of them look like foreign starscapes from a scifi world. You can definitely tell that I didn’t bother with a tripod. But all things considered, I’m pretty happy with my first bunch of fireworks shots! And now, I want more fireworks!
tags: fireworks, international fireworks festival, photographs, photography
