Tamagawa Fireworks
Comments: 9
Looking like something out of a biology textbook (Plates 1–9: the miracle of conception) the montage above shows a few shots from tonight’s Tamagawa fireworks festival. What a great excuse to go and sit on the banks of the river in the cool of the evening, eat some onigiri and drink a beer (as if anyone needs an excuse). I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: they sure as hell know how to put on a fireworks display in this country. It was just magnificent.
Sometimes the simpler fireworks are the best. It’s hard to describe the beautiful shimmering effect of this one. The photo doesn’t really capture it at all…
Leaving simple behind, the compound effects can also be nice…
At times there was lots happening at once…
A weird green one…
The simple joy of single explosions big and high…
This next shot looks quite dramatic. You can see the other fireworks festival further downstream adding to the effect…
Finally it’s time for the finale. The show closed out…
…with a big…
…BANG!
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Posted to The Good • 2002.08.18 (Sun) • 00:12
Comments
Posted by Mary Beth 2002.08.18, 11:19
WOW. I want to see more. And more. And more.
Posted by Kurt 2002.08.18, 12:10
I’ll second Mary Beth’s wow! Jeremy, my first thought was a bit more esoteric: stills from an old Jordan Belson experimental film.
Jeremy has captured the beauty of Japanese fireworks better than I have, but for Mary Beth and anyone else, I have a few shots as well here:
http://www.easterwood.org/japan02/ (click on July 27 and August 3)
Posted by jh 2002.08.18, 12:15
Just be careful what you wish for: I was using the trusty Coolpix 990 and ended up with about 140 shots. ;-)
Culling the duds left me with 116 photos, but don’t worry, I won’t make you sit through them all. Digital cameras are really quite amazing, aren’t they. You can shoot and shoot and shoot and not have to worry about what it’s costing you in film. I filled up an 80MB CF card and made a reasonable dent in the 64MB one. Yoicks.
I’ll clean up some other shots and add them here in a day or two.
Posted by Mary Beth 2002.08.19, 07:12
Mucho thanks!
Posted by jh 2002.08.19, 11:24
Mary Beth — You’re most welcome!
Kurt — That shot of yours from July 27 of the explosion appearing over the top of the building is classic.
You’ve got some great photos there. Looking through, I can see that our eyes are caught by similar things; I got shock after shock of ‘recognition’ while thumbing through your galleries (not because I’ve taken similar shots, but because I can strongly identify - I think - with what grabbed you in each shot).
Posted by Jeff 2002.08.22, 23:06
In this case, the sum of your photos might be greater than the individual parts. The grid really looks great!!!
Posted by jh 2002.08.23, 00:25
Ha! You’re prefectly right.
Apart from the pure dumb thrill of big explosions (which I love), the joy of fireworks seems to come from the minute droplets of anticipation that condense when the tracer of a shell burns out and you lose the precise trajectory. There’s a half-second or second more of extra flight before the main detonation and that’s what really gets me. I’m not even sure you could get this on video (I’ve never tried) but it might be interesting to have a go. I’ll try to borrow a DV camera and see if I can’t get to another show before the summer’s out.
Posted by robert battaglia 2003.10.26, 16:59
i have seen as many fireworks as most people see cars,i am in the profession.you have awed me,i search the web on fireworks sites for good pics constantly,yours are beautiful,and have caught my attention more than any other. thank you
Posted by randall 2006.11.22, 19:42
very nice pics mate , from fellow pyro
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