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.
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