David de Groot Photography » Cityscape

Riverfire 2010 – Composite

david — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 00:03:34 +0000

’twas Riverfire in Brisbane last night, the annual fireworks spectacular which since it’s inception in 1998 has featured the F-111′s doing a dump’n'burn flyby.

Due to these aircraft being decommissioned at the end of this year, this was the last Riverfire they are partaking in (apparently).

Therefore, I made the trek into the city again this year, but just for an added challenge, held a workshop on how to shoot fireworks at the same time.

My business partner, Kane, and I arrived at 4am to ensure we could grab the best possible location. Rumours of safety fencing proved to be correct for the best location, so we went to plan B. There was an unfenced section so we setup our chairs and tripods and began the looooong wait (show starts at 7pm).

By 7:30am, contractors had arrived and demanded we move from our prime position as they were installing more safety fencing where we were. Why is this an issue – well in order to not get the regular fence in your shot, you need to have the tripod right up next to it. The safety fencing was placed over 1m from the regular fence, meaning that at wide-angles it was impossible to not get the regular fence in your frame.
To say we were unimpressed was an understatement. After much calling around trying to get hold of the organisers, we capitulated and moved back far enough for the fence to be installed.
The plan was then to place the tripods between the two fences and just use remotes to trigger the cameras. All well and good until around midday the Hired Goons Security turned up and made everyone remove the tripods from between the fences and place them back on the outside of the safety fence. Things clearly weren’t going our way.
Still, eventually the students showed up and we ran through the course material, fed them pizza, and as it was getting close to the show time, re-installed the tripods between the fences.
Alas, more Goons Security turned up (different ones, but equally fascist), and demanded the tripods once again be moved back behind the safety fence.
So it was up to full extension on the ‘pods with the view of minimising the damage. Everyone still had parts of the regular fence in the frame but small enough due to careful composition that it was salvageable.

Finally the show began with not a hint of what was going on (no countdown to the flyby, etc). We all rushed to set off the cameras and then began the (slightly less than 30 min) show with 4 chances at shooting the F-111s.

I caught all four partial or full flybys and have made the following composite image.

Riverfire 2008

david — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 11:39:30 +0000

This photo is the culmination of 9 hours of staking our spot at Wilson’s Outlook. Myself and a group of fellow photographers arrived early in the day and marked out a spot for the rest of our party and then waited until the show began.
Since fireworks are very bright compared to the background, you need a long exposure to burn in enough of the background to be interesting. This is only really possible at the start and the end of the show, which meant that essentially I got one decent photo for all that waiting, but it was worth it.

You can also see my spectacular 2009 Riverfire photo.

Riverfire

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 03:14:39 +0000

River Festival, Brisbane. Heralding in the new Spring.

Story Bridge and City

admin — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 01:47:52 +0000

During the Blue Hour. Kara and I stopped off at Newfarm after dropping everyone off at their respective drop-off points and I shot a couple of dozen twilight city shots. I like this one the best.

Blue Arch

admin — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 22:26:34 +0000

I came across this nifty blue arch on my walk today and felt compelled to shoot off a few frames from different angles. This is the one I like the best.

Brisbane City Reflections

admin — Sun, 06 May 2007 01:52:16 +0000

Blue Hour shot I took back on the 5th of May 2007. Re-processed with Lightroom using the “Direct Positive” process.

Brisbane at Night

admin — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 02:52:55 +0000

Shot back in March of this year during a night photowalk with visiting photographer, Xenedis, from Sydney. I borrowed his 35/1.4L for the evening (wonderful lens by the way).