Alton Bay Fireworks Slideshow

[upthesaukee]

Here's a try at a slideshow of the fireworks at Alton Bay on July 2, 2005. It should play in Adobe Reader, and will transition every 5 seconds. To end, just hit the "esc" key. Hope it works well and enjoy. And now that I have it posted, it doesn't auto play. Soooooooooooo, if it just comes up in a browser window, go to view and select full screen, and then use the page up and page down keys to change slides. In the mean time, I will play with this thing and see if I can get it to auto play.

Well, I can't get it to autoplay, but if you right click on the link to the slideshow, and then select save target as... you can download it to your computer and view it there. Enjoy . Sorry it doesn't autoplay here .

[Mee-n-Mac]

Excellent job there UTS ! Between you and lakegirl and fpartri497 I now feel the need to do something creative with the 120+ pics I took that night. I'll need a few cocktails to get properly "creative" though BTW despite the late start, I thought the fireworks were excellent and we love the new location ! Easily viewable from our docks, no need to take the boat out. Capt "Mac" could concentrate on enjoying the show (and pushing the shutter button). Will the same company do the same barge thing for Alton Olde Home Days ?

ps - NHKathy, did you ever make it to the show ? Did you get a parking spot ??

[upthesaukee]

Thanks Mac....Yes, Atlas will be doing the Old Home Day fireworks on August 13th. Glad you enjoyed them. It was funny to be over in the parking lot area, and watching people instictively watch the sky toward the beach, waiting for the fireworks to start, and then see the look on their faces when the fireworks came up off the barge.

I took 92 pictures, and pared them down to around 20-25 and then took the twelve for the slideshow.

We didn't do the boat for Alton, just too windy, and I wasn't too crazy about having some potentially sizeable waves to fight going back to WAM, so we left the Upthesaukee at the slip. Did spend 8 hours on the lake on Mon, including going over to Wolfeboro for their fireworks. Nice show there as well.

Good luck with the liquid creativity, thanks for the invite via email, and we'll give you a toot if we see you out and about, now that I know where you live!

[Rattlesnake Gal]

Thanks for the wonderful show Upthesaukee! Thumbs up to the other photographers too.
We were unable to make it because Rattlesnake Guy was just hitting town as they were starting.
He was wishing for a camera as he drove by the bay. Said all the boats with their lights on were just beautiful.
Did anyone get a good shot of that?
Then once R-Guy was onboard, Rattlesnake Dog was too frightened by the amateur shows to even try to attend the real fireworks.
(The same dog that scares away thunder, airplanes, ducks and large dogs. Go figure. Thankfully he is good with boats!)
Glad we have another chance on August 13th!

[Mee-n-Mac]

Originally Posted by Rattlesnake Gal

{snip} He was wishing for a camera as he drove by the bay. Said all the boats with their lights on were just beautiful.
Did anyone get a good shot of that? {snip}

I might have, or more properly I did try but I had the camera on "fireworks" (manual) settings and I don't know if they came out well. I'll look again. I did just post (approval now pending) my semi-creative results and you'all will get to see (before I do) if the big (4000 x 3000 pixels) mosaic shrinks well to fit for display on the forum.

[Mee-n-Mac]

Originally Posted by Mee-n-Mac

I might have, or more properly I did try but I had the camera on "fireworks" (manual) settings and I don't know if they came out well. I'll look again.

Alas I had left the camera on the 2 sec shutter time that I had been using on the fireworks. Thus the panorama of all the boat lights I tried to do is pretty hopeless (too smeared). Perhaps I can try again come Alton Olde Home Days though I don't think we get as many boats for this display (even though it's incredible !!). I've also found that I need to get a dedicated stitching tool, PSP just doesn't cut it for pano's. I've heard good things about PT Tools ...

UTS - FWIW, I had used "Mee's" now 3 (4 ?) yr old Minolta S404 set for manual mode. With the zoom at wide angle (38-ish mm in SLR terms) I think I had f2.8 - f3.0, ISO set to 100 and used the aforementioned 2 sec shutter time just because I was too lazy to try to time the shot. Hear a whoomp and push the button. Let's see thats about 2 stops over what you used and I have quite a few where the bright center of the display is too washed out (over-exposed). I think your settings are just about right. Next time I'm stopping down a bit more, maybe switch to an even lower ISO.

ps - Oh yeah, that composite was this years (not last years, as originally labelled), this years, 2005, show. I guess that makes me the new wrong date king fpartri gets a break here, ... now post those pictures !

[MJM]

We thought they were great also - just curious as the WHY the change from the beach to the barge...??

[upthesaukee]

MJM -- Using the beach required shutting down Rte 28A and Bay Hill Road due to its close proximaty to the beach. Closing RTE 28A could be a real safety issue for folks living out that way. There was also some concern about safety issues involving the electric lines in close proximaty to the beach as well (yes, both issues have been around for years, but doesn't necessarily mean that they shouldn't be addressed). A final consideration was a town warrant article that was passed this year funding half of the estimated $75,000 cost to return the beach to its former grandeur (tying the beach and Harmony Park in together, creating what's known as a "perched beach" with a small wall and steps down into the water). It's kind of difficult to ask the voters to fund that kind of money, and then tear the beach up once or twice a year to shoot off fireworks. I would also imagine it makes a little better "fire" issue with any sparks coming down.

Feedback I have had is that the fireworks were among the best ever, and that the new launch site was great. Thanks for asking.

[MJM]

Makes sense to me, thanks!

We go every year by boat, and anchor with friends to watch. So there are 14 of us total, and ALL of us think the barge made for a better show, and hope it continues that way from now on.

Thanks for the insight.
-MJM

[fpartri497]

hey upthesaukee:

I took about 54 photos of the fireworks that night and several of yours are almost identical. it looks to me like you where north of the bandstand and i was sitting in the last seat on town docks right next to shibleys dock.on the railing. the new cannon powershot digital camera I bought that morning acctually has a special setting for fireworks.

fpartri497

[Rattlesnake Gal]

Originally Posted by fpartri497

hey upthesaukee: I took about 54 photos of the fireworks that night and several of yours are almost identical. The new cannon powershot digital camera I bought that morning acctually has a special setting for fireworks.

Can we see them?

[upthesaukee]

Yup....we were sitting on the grass strip between the parking lot and the sidewalk, and I actually just stood next to my chair to take the picture of Pop's. My 4 year old Kodak doesn't have a setting, but I tried to remember the old film days manual setting for fireworks...thought it was about f2.8 at 1/125 at ISO400. Not bad overall.

[mcdude]

fpartri497:
I have a Cannon Powershot....hope you will enjoy it as much as I have! Easy enough for a beginner but with lots of features to "grow into". McD