2009 HSBC Celebration of Light – South Africa

Sunday, July 26th, 2009 :: 10:04 pm

Under bizarre weather conditions (supposedly we were supposed to have “clear skies” for two full weeks), the Celebration of Light fireworks show still continued last night, just as the organizers promised – rain or shine. It was one of the weirdest sunsets + weather storms I’ve ever seen in Vancouver. Anyone who was there can tell you the same thing.

Nonetheless we still braved the heavy rain and lightning strikes all throughout downtown and arrived close to English Bay with plenty of parking to spare at 8:30pm. I guess you can say it was an “advantage” with this kind of weather? :-P

I wish I had a third hand and could take a photo of our spontaneous weather “tent”. Basically it was consisted of a big bright plastic sheet, and we sat AND covered our heads with it, with an extra umbrella on top to cover my leg and the camera. Very dangerous, yes, but worth the adventure? Definitely! :-D

While we waited a butt-aching 2 hours (which seemed like an eternity), we saw mother nature give its own “Celebration of Light” with spectacular lightnings from English Bay. I’d say it was a huge bonus for the night – the crowd cheering and clapping after every visible lightning! I will have more in another post.

While I think that Canada gave a better performance overall, South Africa (with a theme of “Tapestry of Colour”) probably gained a huge advantage with the weather – everyone there probably gave it bonus points given the weather endured. :-P They still had some pretty impressive bombs – high, low, left, right, and loud. The only thing I think they could’ve improved was shorten the “downtimes” between sections, sometimes the wait was quite long.

Anyhow, hope you enjoy these photos a bit more with all that description!

(Click for larger images, you can scroll through all the fireworks images with left and right arrow keys)

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 7s / Aperture: f/11.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Crowd waiting for fireworks to start under the unusual sunset

Vancouver Orange Sunset

Shutter speed: 1/100s / Aperture: f/5.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 800
Thunderstorm looms over English Bay on fireworks night

Vancouver Orange Sunset

Shutter speed: 1/6s / Aperture: f/8.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 800

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 5s / Aperture: f/10.0 / Focal: 29mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 6s / Aperture: f/13.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 8s / Aperture: f/13.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 7s / Aperture: f/13.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 8s / Aperture: f/18.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 5s / Aperture: f/14.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 10s / Aperture: f/18.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 7s / Aperture: f/14.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 13s / Aperture: f/14.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 7s / Aperture: f/14.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 9s / Aperture: f/14.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 3s / Aperture: f/11.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 5s / Aperture: f/7.1 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 5s / Aperture: f/4.5 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 7s / Aperture: f/4.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 6s / Aperture: f/6.3 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 8s / Aperture: f/11.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 4s / Aperture: f/18.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 3s / Aperture: f/18.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 3s / Aperture: f/9.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 10s / Aperture: f/20.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 4s / Aperture: f/16.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 10s / Aperture: f/8.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 3s / Aperture: f/13.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 6s / Aperture: f/20.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 8s / Aperture: f/20.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 3s / Aperture: f/11.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 3s / Aperture: f/11.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 2s / Aperture: f/22.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

Celebration of Lights 2009 South Africa

Shutter speed: 1s / Aperture: f/22.0 / Focal: 18mm / ISO: 100

9 Responses to “2009 HSBC Celebration of Light – South Africa”

  1. welen Says:

    i see thunders!

  2. Nicky Says:

    why do i have palm tree images in my mind when i look through the photos? lol

    nice pics! wish i had gone.. >..< next time i'll bring my umbrella! ho~

  3. kwyc Says:

    iz amazing to see thunders and fireworks together =]

    不過大家都不怕死耶…(不怕被閃電擊到 Orz||| )

  4. a70 Says:

    welen: Wait.. you mean lightning right? You can only hear thunder :-P

    kwyc: 我想大家都死盯著那天的sunset + lightning to care about that! XD 聽說那天還有幾十萬人去勒!

  5. silmeria Says:

    你用什麼鏡頭拍攝”煙火”???

  6. aw Says:

    *THUMBS UP* for the first picture
    if only it was a little bit stronger… mwahaha

  7. a70 Says:

    silmeria: 我通常拍煙火的時候都用regular zoom lens – 我用我的Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8

    aw: I don’t think I can control that! :-D Thanks!

  8. Michael Richards Says:

    Sam,
    I am currently working on an article on Vancouver’s Festival of Lights for the next issue of ’76 Pyro Magazine and would love to have you as part of it. Hopefully you’ll get this soon enough. Contact me soon.

    Michael Richards
    Editor/Art Director,
    ’76 Pyro Magazine

  9. a70 Says:

    Replied!

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