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Photo of Chania harbour, Crete, Greece.
Chania is the second largest city of Crete and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north coast of the island, about 145 km west of Heraklion. An important period for the city of Chania was the invasion and occupation by German forces during World War II. The British force that faced the German paratroopers during the Battle Of Crete in 1941, had artillery elements over the hill of Dexameni in the south of the city. These elements bombed the German forces in the Maleme airfield undetected, until they ran out of ammunition.
Chania lighthouse, the jewel of the city, is one of the oldest light houses, not only in Greece and the Mediterranean, but also in the world, constructed by the Venetians around 1595 - 1601, it took its final form, in the shape of a minaret, during the Egyptian Period (1831 - 1841) in around 1839. The lighthouse is a major attraction in the old port of Chania especially at night when it's lit up. The tower is 21m high and is built on a stone base, located at the end of the old harbour's pier opposite the fortress of "Firkas".
Rare circumstances allowed me three opportunities to photograph fireworks this weekend. This series came from the second evening. We'd spent the day at my in-law's cabin near Crete, and their neighborhood put on a great show for about 30 minutes.
We were sitting about 100 feet from the launch pad and got showered in debris more than once. This show would fire off a dozen shells, then pause for a minute while they lit the next round. This was a much better situation for photography, as it allowed me to isolate just a couple bursts in each shot without overlapping the previous & next burst.
In contrast to the previous evening, this time I wanted to get some tight close-ups on the bursts to show off the detail. Due to our close proximity, I chose a 50mm prime lens, my beloved 1967 Super-Tak. It set the aperture to f/11 to maximize color & sharpness. Because we were so close, I was constantly having to re-aim the tripod head to where I anticipated the next burst to occur. A lot of bursts were out of frame, but I did catch a good number of them. It felt a little bit like shooting birds in flight -- far more active than your typical fireworks shoot.
This image is the full width, cropped slightly off the top & bottom.
Tips on shooting fireworks can be found on the Prairie Rim Images blog at
blog.PrairieRimImages.com/2011/07/three-ways-to-shoot-fir...
and
blog.PrairieRimImages.com/2011/06/photographing-fireworks...