Tag Archives: fireworks

Fireworks Lacking Colour

We waited hours for the fireworks on Spike Island yesterday and, of course, I have loads of photos of the event, which will be posted here in due course.

Here’s one photo, done a little differently, but I like the effect the lines of the fireworks in the air made in the air. Removing the colour simplifies them into the little fingers of flame reaching out in a quick instant.


Apertureƒ/8
CameraILCE-7RM5
Focal length24mm
ISO800
Shutter speed1/10s

The fireworks of Cobh People’s Regatta 2023

The Cobh People’s Regatta took place last weekend and the town was hopping. We enjoyed the live music, getting up close to the stage to watch Qween rock the place.

Shortly after 10pm, the fireworks went off, and we rushed over to the water’s edge by the pier to watch the spectacle.

I didn’t have time to set up my camera, tripod and remote release, so I watched the fireworks for a few moments, enjoying myself. Not content with being a passive watcher, I decided to have a go at shooting them handheld.

The exposure time couldn’t be too long, or the photo would be very shaky, and the sensor had to be sensitive enough to capture the light of the explosions in the sky. I decided on the following settings:

  • 0.5 to 1 second exposure.
  • f/4 to f/6.3 aperture, depending on zoom.
  • ISO 400 ensures the sensor picks up the light.

The fireworks were only just offshore, so maybe 200m away from me, and I found these settings worked really well! I kept one eye open and that helped me see what the camera was capturing and see what was about to happen. I shot handheld, so I was able to adapt more quickly to low or high fireworks and I really enjoyed the illumination!


Apertureƒ/6.3
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length128mm
ISO400
Shutter speed1/2s

2023 Fireworks on Spike Island

Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort
Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort
Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort
Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort
Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort
Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort
Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort
Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort
Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort
Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort
Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort
Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort
Fireworks light up the sky above Fort Mitchel on Spike Island. a crowd watches, surrounded by the buildings of the fort

Last night I attended the 85th Birthday Celebrations & Commemorations on Spike Island in Cork Harbour.

Eagle-eyed readers will already have seen the fireworks photo I posted to this page yesterday. Readers with even better eye sight will have noticed that I replaced the image I uploaded yesterday with a slightly different version today. Call it me being peculiar, but I wanted to edit the photo on my computer today and make the best of the image. The one that I uploaded yesterday came from minimal editing in Lightroom on my phone while we waited for the ferry.

From the Spike Island website,

At Spike Island, we’re celebrating our 85th birthday this year with our annual Family Fun Evening and Fireworks Display, marking the date when Spike Island was officially handed from Britain to Ireland in 1938. In honour of this momentous occasion, we’ll be celebrating our Independence Day with a spectacular fireworks display, musical performances and family fare on Saturday 8th July.
Visitors will board the ferry across the world’s second largest natural harbour, enjoy a guided tour on arrival, explore the fort’s amazing museums and exhibitions and walk the amazing island nature trails. On this special night, there will also be family entertainment, children’s activities,  pop-up musical performances, face painters and more.

To close the night, a fireworks display will launch 1300 fireworks into the sky over Cork Harbour, one for every inmate who died on the island in its three incarnations as a prison.

This year, to mark the 85th anniversary of the 1938 handover of the ‘Treaty Ports’ from Britain to Ireland, Spike Island is also hosting a new Handover Exhibition at Mitchel Hall featuring a newly added collection of original artefacts. Visitors will have the opportunity to view this exhibition telling the story of our independence on the evening of the celebrations event.

I booked my ticket late, so we arrived just before 8pm, did a tour of the fort, bought some food in the restaurant and settled down to wait until the fireworks started, accompanied by Strictly Cash, a Johnny Cash tribute band.

The fireworks went on for some time and were spectacular. We had a great time photographing them, and the images you see here are only a small selection of the images I shot.

The ferry back was supposed to be at midnight, but things got delayed. I think it might have been almost 1am by the time we reached Cobh. The rain held off all evening, until just after midnight, but luckily, I had an umbrella with me. Bizarrely, there was no sign of rain in Cobh at all!


Apertureƒ/6.3
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length24mm
ISO400
Shutter speed1s

New Year’s Fireworks in Malaga

Bright fireworks burst in the sky in an explosion of colour
Bright fireworks burst in the sky in an explosion of colour
Bright fireworks burst in the sky in an explosion of colour. The Hotel Soho Boutique Equitativa and the Moon can be seen behind.

The new year was welcomed by fireworks lit by a random guy in Plaza de la Marina in Malaga. I thought there would be spectacular fireworks over by the lighthouse as the clocks struck 12, but no, the skies remained empty.

We turned away and saw fireworks lighting the sky next to the towering Hotel Soho Boutique Equitativa near the plaza. Bangers were lit and it was very noisy. I remembered I had Bluetooth earphones, and they helped dull the noise when I started playing Pet Shop Boys a little louder than I would normally.

All the photos were hand held. I had a tripod, but it was hard to know when a firework would go up. I eventually set up the tripod during a lull when they lit some sort of sparkler on the ground, but then the main protagonists just walked away. The show was over.

It was my first time shooting fireworks close up and handheld. I shot in manual mode, with the aperture as wide as I could, ISO 100. After a few shots, I switched to back button focus and focused on the hotel, but I’m not sure if it helped much.


Apertureƒ/6.3
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length108mm
ISO100
Shutter speed1s

Fireworks At Cobh People’s Regatta 2022

I barely made it to Cobh on Sunday night to photograph the fireworks display that started promptly at 10pm. On the way there, the cloudy sky was lit up by peals of thunder and flashes of lightning. Rain fell in light spatters on the car, and I’m told there was a downpour just before I arrived.

Fireworks At Cobh People’s Regatta 2022

Luckily the rain held off for the duration of the fireworks that night. I met Vivian and Michelle in front of the Cathedral where they had saved a space for me. I set up my tripod quickly and grappled with an umbrella while I secured my camera to the tripod and connected a remote release.

Before I could manually focus the camera, the bells of the Cathedral rang out and the first firework flew into the sky and burst with a bang.

Fireworks At Cobh People’s Regatta 2022

If you’re interested. I shot at around f/5.0, ISO 400 and timed the exposure manually with the shutter release when I saw fireworks fly into the air and explode. It worked most of the time, and to help focus I tapped the screen on the water in front of the fireworks, which adds a focus square there on my camera.

Fireworks At Cobh People’s Regatta 2022
Fireworks At Cobh People’s Regatta 2022
Fireworks At Cobh People’s Regatta 2022
Fireworks At Cobh People’s Regatta 2022
Fireworks At Cobh People’s Regatta 2022
Fireworks At Cobh People’s Regatta 2022
Fireworks At Cobh People’s Regatta 2022
Fireworks At Cobh People’s Regatta 2022
Fireworks At Cobh People’s Regatta 2022

Apertureƒ/5
CameraILCE-7M3
Focal length38mm
ISO400
Shutter speed2s

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