Second Time's a Charm

I'm an idiot.

One of the lessons that I took away in journalism school, some 35 years ago, is to confirm a source. Don't just get one person's word for anything. Get more than one source. And always go for the authority on a subject.

I failed that lesson on Tuesday.

I knew that the fireworks festival in Gatineau was underway. I had seen lots of photos from various people on social media, and I had gone to the Grands Feux du Casino Lac-Leamy Web site to look at the calendar of events after the first night.

I had already learned that a display from Ukraine would be featured on the second-last night of the event but as the days went by, I had forgotten the actual date. So at the start of this week, I quickly Googled "Lac Leamy fireworks" and received a date–not from the official site–that said August 15.

I had no plans for that evening so at about 40 minutes before sunset, I packed my camera gear into my car and headed downtown. I crossed my fingers that I would find a place that wasn't already crowded with spectators, and hoped that by arriving more than an hour before the usual start of the fireworks, I'd find a good spot.

My personal rule is that I don't go to a place where I've previously photographed fireworks. I like to find a new vantage each time so that not all of my photos look the same. For this evening, I decided that I would check out Richmond Landing, a point along the Ottawa River, just downstream from Mill Street Brew Pub, where the Royal Canadian Navy Monument stands. This spot doesn't offer a great view of the parliament buildings (you do, however, get a clear shot of the parliamentary library) but for the fireworks, they are just supporting members of the event.

I couldn't believe my luck when I arrived at the point. There were a couple of people around, admiring the monument and taking in the light from the sun, which was just setting as I arrived. But for the most part, there was no one to obstruct my view downstream and I had my choice of anywhere along the shoreline.

I set up my camera and tripod and took a shot of the sky and area where I expected the fireworks to appear.

I decided to share this photo on social media, so I posted to Mastodon and Threads. I then sat on one of the rocks and waited for more people to show up.

The fact that there weren't many people around, and no other photographer with a tripod, didn't really cause me any concern. There are plenty of places that I've chosen where either nobody came with the same idea or very few were there.

But as it grew dark and people were starting to leave the point, I wondered what was going on. Was there a better vantage and was I set up in a spot that didn't offer a great view? Surely, not.

One of my Mastodon followers pinged me and said that he thought the fireworks were only on Wednesdays. That post made me stop and think: I did seem to think that Wednesdays and Saturdays were the standard days of the fireworks shows in the past. I decided to Google the actual site to get a confirmation.

I'm an idiot.

The casino's site provided Wednesday, August 16 as the date for the Ukraine show. I was 24 hours early.

I took a few more shots (the light was nice) and then packed up and walked back to my car.

Fast-forward to 24 hours later.

I decided to head out just a bit earlier than the previous night. I wanted to ensure that I could get the same spot where I sat on the previous night. But when I arrived, the site was full of photographers.

I definitely had the right night.

I couldn't get to the water's edge but I found a spot where I'd have no problem shooting over the dozen or so tripods and photogs. I just didn't have an easy spot to sit next to my tripod. But once set up, all I had to do was wait, so I found a rock a few metres back from my camera.

I recognized a couple of the photographers. Some were from my photo meetup group; others, I remembered seeing when I went out to Ottawa's west end to capture the NEOWISE comet. But dozens of spectators, armed only with smartphones, crowded in around the point as the light fell and the showtime approached.

The good news is that I was able to scout out this area before it had filled with other photos. While I didn't have my same setup spot, being at the water's edge didn't really give you any other advantage than having no one stand in front of you. But where I was, somebody really, really tall would have had to stand in front of me, below the rock I was on. My view was never at risk of being obscured.

I'm glad that I made it to Richmond Landing on both nights. While the show was spectacular and it was great to come out to support Ukraine, the sunset was much more dramatic on Tuesday.

Maybe, I'm not an utter idiot. Maybe it was serendipity that let me photograph two very different skies.

Happy Friday!