Tag Archives: Spike Island

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

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

Spike Island Fireworks

Spike Island in Cork Harbour celebrated it’s 81st birthday yesterday with a fireworks display. 1300 fireworks were set off, one for each of the inmates who died on the island during it’s time as a prison over the centuries. I didn’t have a ticket for the event but it was visible from many parts of the Harbour, including Cobh where I gathered with members of Blarney Photography Club.

The evening was warm, and although the fireworks display was far away from Cobh it was enjoyed by everyone around.

It had been a while since I’d photographed fireworks so the tips in this video came in handy:

  1. Use a tripod.
  2. Use a cable release.
  3. Use a wide angle lens (not this time, probably)
  4. Focus just shy of infinity.
  5. Use manual mode.
  6. Shoot at f/8 to f/10.
  7. Use a slow shutter speed. (3-6 seconds). Use bulb mode and a shutter release to capture the light before it trails off.
  8. Shoot at ISO 100.

It turns out that shooting at f/8 or f/10 wasn’t the right aperture after all. It wasn’t letting in enough light in the time I wanted. The fireworks were so far away and the surrounding water and countryside so dark that images were very dark.
Before the event we tested settings trying to get an exposure of -2EV so the surrounding countryside was dark but it rapidly grew darker while the fireworks flew into the air so you had to keep an eye on the exposure every few shots!
My first shots of the night were much too dark. I was shooting in manual mode with a shutter release and I was only shooting short one to five second exposures. It wasn’t until I went over 7 seconds and up to 15 seconds that I got usable images.

In an urban environment and if the fireworks are closer you definitely should start at f/8, but you have to adjust your settings to your situation.

The first (out of focus) shot here is a 7 second exposure, f/7.1 at ISO 100, and that was good enough for a few minutes.

Only four minutes later I needed more light so I opened the aperture to f/5.6.

fireworks

A few minutes later again I increased the ISO to 200 which has the effect of making the camera sensor more sensitive to light. That wasn’t enough and I increased the ISO to 400, with various exposure times for the last few images.

fireworks

Shooting RAW and working in Lightroom or other RAW processor means you can push the photo more so exposure settings don’t have to be spot on every time. In Lightroom I found it useful to increase temperature of the photo to make it warm to counteract the blue hour light after the sun set. I increased the highlights a bit, took down whites and increased vibrance a small amount. Apart from cropping there wasn’t much else done to the images.

Aperture ƒ/5.6
Camera ILCE-7M3
Focal length 127mm
ISO 400
Shutter speed 8s
Close

Ad-blocker not detected

Consider installing a browser extension that blocks ads and other malicious scripts in your browser to protect your privacy and security. Here are a few options.

  • uBlock Origin is a free, open source, ad blocker for your browser.
  • Use pi-hole if you have a spare Raspberry Pi on your network.
  • Set the private DNS settings on your phone to dns.adguard.com to block adverts and trackers.