A different view of fireworks
Friday, July 4th, 2008
Danbury, Connecticut. I was standing right next to the "gun" ( a big pipe) that shot this firework off. This year I thought it would be fun to watch the fireworks show from the perspective of the people who build it and set it off, so that’s what I did. I took hundreds of images of the entire process from start to finish and I’ll do a blog post on it soon. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work: a full day and a half of rigging for a thirty minute show.
This is almost the entire rocket pad for this show, the largest fireworks show in Connecticut. hundreds of tubes charged with an amazing assortment of fireworks, some of which are set off by hand, some electrically from a distance. Good thing most of the guys running the show are firemen.
When you shoot from underneath, familiar firework displays look entirely different. They sound different too; I had to wear my Peltor logging helmet with ear protection. Things got loud, smokey, and at times, hot tid-bits fell out of the sky. It was controlled chaos of the first order and great fun to be around the guys setting if off. Much more on this later. Happy 4th of July.
Richard, I’ve looked at these images several times, and they’re great. What a fascinating, different perspective to fireworks. Thanks spending all that time documenting show show from closeup.
Thanks Gary, I’m pleased with them too. Many more to come… just have to sort and process them.
I’m sure you’ve seen this, but I saw it on a plane once and was totally sucked in: http://www.oldies.com/product-view/9232GD.html. The section on the current companies that manufacture/produce the fireworks shows was awesome.
Great photos!
Caitlin, thanks, I’ll get a copy. I’m processing the rest of the images I got (hundreds) and will be posting more soon. it was a load of fun.
Wonderful images, Richard. Great work.
[...] Richard Wanderman has pointed to a couple of good photo-related items of late: Recent Volcanic Activity (the third from the bottom is my favorite — simply wonderful) and a Slate story called “The Weird Science of Stock Photography.” (And don’t miss Richard’s own images from the 4th of July: “A Different View of Fireworks.”) [...]
Thanks Newley. I am so far behind on my photo processing work. Gad. I really need to get the rest of these finished so I can post a proper photo essay on this experience. It was simply amazing.