This story actually starts many, many years ago, when I was only 11 years old.
I was returning with my parents from a tour of Southern Italy and we stopped for a few days in Napoli (Naples). We stayed in a small hotel right on the waterfront and the first day after our arrival, we went to visit Herculanum. That evening, we were surprised to see more and more people taking positions along the waterfront, all facing the ancient fort of “Castel dell Ovo”. I was not able to find out when the latest structure was built, but Wikipedia indicates that there have been fortifications in this location since well before Christ.
The photo above comes from Yahoo Travel – I probably took a photo of the castle with my trusty Kodak Instamatic, but I did not keep it…
We later discovered that the castle would be the backdrop for fireworks that evening, and we happened to be at one of the best place to see it.
It is my earliest memory of “substantial” fireworks. We were very close to where they were shot and the concussion on top of the light and the music was more than I expected. I also vividly remember cascades of white fireworks tumbling from the high remparts of the castle.
We move next to Houston and the US Bicentennial celebration in 1976. I was at a party with friends and we all went to see the fireworks at midnight at Allen’s Landing, right in the middle of the downtown area. As I had the largest vehicle in the group, everybody piled into my pick-up truck (four in front, sitting side-by-side as this was not a double cab and 16 in the back). We were well above the 1/2 ton load the truck was supposedly designed for, but it managed it without a problem.
I do not remember the fireworks all that much – they were spectacular, I am sure – but I do remember the trip back to the party. There was a massive trafic jam in the middle of town, at midnight thirty! After a while, I felt the truck shake a little and than we started to hear the US National Anthem. All the people in the back of my truck had gotten up and were singing as loud as they could. Soon people all around us had stepped out of their cars and were joining in. We probably aggravated the trafic situation, but no one around us seemed to care. A fine way to celebrate the anniversary of my then adopted country.
We fast-forward to 1986 and the centenary of the Statue of Liberty in New York. A massive celebration was planned on 4 July and I joined with a few friends and co-workers. We took the train early from White Plains to Grand Central as we wanted to make sure we avoided the trafic. We first watched the Great Ships sailing up the Hudson River – they were not actually sailing as the wind was against them, but they passed by one at a time – we did get a really good look at them. We were about 1/2 way between the “Enterprise” and the Washington Bridge with a great view. I did take many pictures with my second Canon Camera (my Canon A1-Black body) – a great camera which I kept for many years. However, once again, I did not keep these and so cannot share them with you. At midnight, there were fireworks around the statue. We tried to get close, but could not manage a spot from where we could see the statue, but there were barges for the fireworks up the Hudson and East Rivers, so we still did get a good show.
I found this one on Internet to at least give an idea of what happened – I am not surte this was taken during that particular event…
After the show, we walked along with several million other people from the Battery all the way to Grand Central Station, using Broadway. All lanes (there are 4-6 lanes for most of the distance) and the sidewalks (or pavements for you in the UK) were packed with people, and these extended in front and behind us as far as the eye could see. We walked in the middle of the road, with absolutely no concern for cars as there were none, and they could not have gone anywhere if they were. Special trains had been arranged, but several were already full when we arrived at the station and therefore I think we ended up leaving after 2 AM and I did not get home ’till past 3AM. A full day…
There have been other memorable fireworks since (1993 in Antwerpen; 1998 in Houston; 2006 and 2007 in Singapore; 2009 in Brussels). Most shows would take about 15 minutes – a really long one would extend to 20 minutes. I have tried to take pictures of the fireworks in Singapore with mixed results. Judge for yourselves from the selection below.
Generally, there is too much smoke for the real effect to be visible. I am also struggling with exposure – too short and all you see are light dots; too long and the picutre is overexposed (as the one on the right). It is also very difficult to get the timing right, since you are taking a 2-4 second exposure – what is going to happen in the next 2-4 seconds?
But – a very long introduction for the fact that I have probably just seen more fireworks in one evening, than during the rest of my life. The show actually started at 10AM (not a typo, I did mean to say AM!) when I heard the first ‘blasts’ while waiting for the Hermitage Museum (Amsterdam Branch) to open. I figured that some people must have friends in New Zealand or Tonga and were celebrating their New Year! However, throughout the day, I kept hearing random explosions wherever I went in the city.
After nightfall, I could see outside the window of the hotel, on a regulae basis, more fireworks all around me. Just behind the hotel is the Vogelpark, a large green zone and this seemed to be a chosen place for fireworks. See the attached photo taken about 9PM where I have circled the visible fireworks, just in case you cannot find them.
The brightly lit area towards the middle of the picture is the square behind the Rijksmuseum and in front of the Concertgebouwknown as Museum Plein where the New Year Celebration will be held this year instead of the Dam as in previous years. It was obvious that a lot of these early fireworks were sent by individuals, or groups who got together for this. Some of them were quite nice and therefore I watched the spectacle out the window as the time approached midnight. And the spectacle just kept on going – the firework surprised me by how high it went, and so I missed most of it.
I figured that people will have exhausted their supply by midnight and I was looking forward to the “official” fireworks from the Museum Plein venue, which I could clearly see from my window.
The “Official” fireworks started rigthat midnight. It is very disappointing to me that I was able to take better firework pictures with my littly tiny Casio automatic digital camera sitting on a book and a an empty box of crackers than what I was able to do with my SLRs before that. I simply chose the “Fireworks” setting of the camera, and this is what I got! The “official” show started building up.
But the locals were not done! All over the city, everywhere I looked, there were more fireworks going up. The whole 180 degrees of the city that I could see from my window were constantly lit up by more and more fireworks…
Every dot of light you see in this picture above the skyline in the background is actually some firework going up or floating down. Some people also shot flares in the air – I assume these were flares that were coming close to the expiration date and therefore this was as good as any way to get rid of them. The red streak in the top middle of the picture is just such a flare.
I took a short video, again with my cheap ‘casio’ camera of the action at about 00:30. Here is the film. I have to provide a link as the blog does not allow such large file. Do click on the link as this gives the best impression (sound and sight) of what I was experiencing between midnight and 1AM! If that does not work, please copy it to your web browser. It takes a while to download the file, but I think it if worth it.
Fireworks were going up everywhere. Just look at how many there are in this picture, close and much further away
There were “block” parties which seemed to be organised in various areas, one visible even from my hotel where they has built a large bonfire right in the middle of the street
The excitement did not wane until about 1AM, when the fireworks started in London! I had never experienced a fireworks show that lasted 15 hours with a “Finale” that was a full hour long!
I woke up to the moon setting behind snow covered mountains
Then I remembered where I was and decided that they could not be mountains and had to be clouds!
The remnants of last night’s party were everywhere
Here are the rest of the bonfire I showed in the last night picture
and the trace of a thousand firecrackers
By the way, I also did visit Amsterdam. I went to the new Hermitage Museum where they had an excellent exhibit on the life and customs of the last Russian Tsars; I went to visit Rembrandt’s house and spent a long time at the Van Gogh Museum. I walked around the town early on 1 January as all the museums were closed. Managed to capture some typical Amsterdam shots.
Canal scene with the Oudekerk in the background
This one needs no explanation as to where it is. You can tell from the bicycles, and the bridge, of course
The deserted Red Light District – they are probably barely recovering from last night’s party…
Except for the Porche parked there, this picture could have been taken 200 years ago…
More canals, with the Westerkerk this time.
I took this picture thinking of David. Amsterdam is known for its bicycles. There was a new model available and I saw many many bikes modified in this fashion. While the rest of the world is struggling to eliminate unneeded grams from their racing bikes (I recently read an article written by Shimano indicating how they were able to shave 1 gram here and 2 grams there in the design of their new gears through the use of exotic metals…) it seems that in Amsterdam, function still rules…
I have seen just about anything being carried in the front – kids (several at once…), groceries, a carpet, dogs etc… Most of the time, the person actually riding the bicycle was also talking on the phone – I guess no rule here about using “hands-free” while out in traffic…
The weather was bitterly cold the whole time I was there, but I still had a very good time in Amsterdam, at the end of one decade and the beginning of the next one.
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@pierreo I was amused that you found fireworks shots better on the point-and-shoot camera than on the big DSLR. In dark situations, I’ve been learning to leave my point-and-shoot cameras to ISO 400 — they’re not smart enough to not boost up beyond that! — and use the exposure adjustment to “underexpose” the image. There’s a lot of black in available light, and “intelligent” exposures calculated on that aren’t very smart.
I enjoyed the photos of Amsterdam on the morning after. They’re not exactly the ones that are shown to most tourists … but they’re real life.