Surprise Opportunity for Night Photography

[Chris of Arabia]

Not sure whether I've mentioned it, but I live not very far from the Janadriyah Cultural Festival site not far outside the edge of Riyadh. Every year, the festival attracts 100's of thousands of visitors from far and wide. Today is the first day, so the King has been visiting to open proceedings and get the roads blocked off for him. It was only around an hour ago that we heard an absolutely colossal bang and thought the bad guys were trying to pay us a call again - not quite so though. Out we trotted to the back of the house which face the direction of the Janadriyah site to see this stuff going on. With little time to spare, the camera and tripod were grabbed and set up where we were and a exposure setting guessed at. This is a sample of what I got.

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I'd be the first to admit that the foreground is a little samey, but there wasn't really an opportunity to plan ahead for this and get a better position sorted out.

 

[Antarctican]

Good work and fast reflexes there, Chris!

(The appearance of the fireworks in that last shot is very interesting - any more details you can give us re that one?)

 

[Chris of Arabia]

All I can say is that it was one of those that throws out lots of smaller parts that then seem to spin a little like a Catherine wheel - that was the result. Pretty much all the rest were really big explosions from a central point

 

[Dagwood56]

One word ----PHENOMENAL!

 

[Chris of Arabia]

I thought they were PHIREWORKS...

 

[Antarctican]

(Oh, very phunny)

 

[Dagwood56]

Cute.

 

[jv17]

wow this is a good one..

 

[LaFoto]

Well, yes, the foreground you had wasn't overly much to your advantage, at least someone could have switched off that light for you :er: ... but well: the display as such looks quite impressive! You captured it nicely. My guess is you exposed for about 2 seconds? Maximum? The light streaks in the sky are short ...