Gala Fireworks

The 25th Anniversary Gala for First Stage Theatre Academy went quite well, all things considered. If nothing else, it sounds like everyone involved is happy with the photographs we took, and they've been posting them to the organization's facebook and flickr pages. So a happy client is a happy ending for me!

I'd hardly say I'm feeling competent with a speedlight. I'd want to sit down with it in a cobbled-together studio and do lots of tests to see how each setting change affects the outcome. I feel I lost a few shots due to poor operation of the flash, but I have to be honest and acknowledge that I lost far more due to poor focus/unsteady hands.

As a retirement gift Managing Director, who founded First Stage 25 years ago, the employees purchased a sail for his sailboat with their logo. They timed the reveal of this gift quite well with a concurrent festival's fireworks, so moments after the boat's sail was lit up and opened up, fireworks started to go off. Made for quite a neat display.

Picking a blip pic for today was no easy task. In the end I picked this since it was the one firework shot that turned out pretty well, and it was my first time photographing fireworks! You can see my runner up here as well as other pics from the evening that I liked enough.