Bam! Boom! KaPow! ~swuish~

November 7, 2009. The annual Taipei fireworks festival. In more than 10 years of my stay in this island, this is the first time I've heard of this, and this is the first time I've ever gone out specifically to join the masses in ogling at fireworks. This is also the first time I'm armed with digital camera to (try and) make this event memorable... and another first in my entire existence where I had the chance to actually watch a fireworks show. Hey, that's a lot of firsts.

For this event, I decided to bring the underwater and not the neckbreaker. I knew I was going to get better shots with the neckbreaker, but for some reason, I decided to go with the other.

As I made my way to the bridge an hour before the fireworks display, I can already tell the other people walking in front of me were heading for the same way. And as expected, the place was packed. Fortunately someone vacated a really good spot just when I got to that spot. It couldn't have been better timing.

There wasn't really anything I could do as I waited for the fireworks show... so I was playing around with the underwater. There were boats with colored fluorescent lights around them (obviously to make them visible and to prevent any collisions on the water). But I was getting frustrated. My only goal in catching the fireworks display (as with everything else) is one and only one: to take pictures. I wasn't getting any good nightshots because I didn't have any tripod, and I had no viewfinder to use while taking my pics. Plus, the guy behind me had his neckbreaker and I could hear the KAH-JACK of his shutter. Darn... I miss the KAH-JACKing of my own camera. =(

And so my first try with fireworks... all taken using automatic, night, and fireworks mode. I can't really tell which ones I took with which mode.

I'm looking forward to the next one, whenever and wherever that will be.