As usual, come the end of the Edinburgh festival I was preparing to watch The Fireworks perched on top of a hill with a good view of the castle, photographing the amazing pyrotechnics from afar. However a couple of days before the event I received an email from the guys at Blipfoto saying that I (and one other Bliper, SlyBaconshots) had won a photo competition and would receive free passes from the Edinburgh International Festival to the firework display. Not only that but we would be able to visit the castle for a behind the scene look at the firework set up. How cool is that?
Anyway Sunday arrived and no sooner, after meeting Brian the EIF press officer at the Hub, we were stood on the Castle ramparts surrounded by tons of high explosives, which was slightly unnerving to say the least! We were introduced to Keith Webb, Pyrotechnics Designer at Pyrovision and given a guide tour of the site. For added safety we had to remove any spare camera batteries we had and leave them in a safe place as they do not mix well with electronic fuses.
The amount of fireworks on the site was just hair raising with huge crates of mortars and wires running in every direction. I can now understand why the cost of these displays is so high especially when you see the amount of work that’s involved. Pyrovision had crew of 15 working flat out for a week to put the site together and before that months of planning down to the finest detail: the guys at Pyrovision do an amazing job.
Sadly the only thing we did not see was a big red FIRE! button or one of those cartoon plungers that sends it all up. Apparently it’s sent skyward with a mouse click these days.
You do get a great view from the Castle – I’m sure they had tourists in mind when it was built
A large fan ready to blow
Words about safety and things that go bang in the night
Just a few more fireworks
Fellow Bliper Graeme (SlyBaconshots) getting in a few shots
A tourist unaware of the rather large amount of explosives laying around.
Many thanks to Blipfoto, the EIF press office and the guys at Pyrovision for showing us around and letting us take lots of shots of their firework setup.
The fireworks
The atmosphere beforehand was amazing as people filed in to Princes Street Gardens to get the best view. It was a great night for it as the weather was truly kind so it was picnics as far as the eye could see. There was even a wedding party on the go. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra provided the music with a Shakespearean theme hence the music of William Walton and his Orb and Sceptre piece. The William Walton material continued in the programme from the film Henry V. Other Shakespearian faves included Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet featuring the Dance of the Knights.
So my fellow Bliper Graeme (SlyBaconshots) and I took our places along with all the press photographers and film crews. We were feeling slightly intimidated as we where the only Nikon shooters in the media group. I was using a D4 with 14-24mm F2.8 which was probably a bit too fast for fireworks. I also had my beaten up old D700 with a 24-70mm F2.8 for hand held stuff. I even had a small Nikon 1 V1 lashed to a railing for video.
Well, no sooner had it all kicked off than it was over – with some frantic shooting inbetween: 45mins never went so fast. So here are some of the images.
The Happy Couple
