Hi,

Do you know if the same firms that took part of the 2008 edition will be there this year as well (Royal, Ampleman, FAE and BEM) ?

Thanks,

STL

Hey there STL,

I am most likely sure the same firms will be there this year. Because it takes place in the Old Port, so most likely Canadian firms itself will be there. So mostly the most popular firms (Royal, Ampleman, not sure about FAE or BEM. But I will be there to see the displays.

Regards,
Pat

I'll probably attend the displays this year, though only if it isn't excessively cold - my limit is nothing colder than -6 C coupled with light winds (wind direction doesn't matter too much in Winter when it comes to windchill).

Again, hoping for a mild late Fall-Winter.

Trav.

Hopeless! the winter as come like they want.. lol

Hopeless! the winter as come like they want.. lol

Perhaps. This Fall seems to be no exception to that statement - in fact, October 2009's monthly average was a mere 10.6 Celsius, making it the third coldest October on record in the last 35 years. Arguably, this has certainly been one of the coldest years, in general, that I can recall - from January up until now.

The Winter of 2001-2002 was actually one of my personal favorites as it was so mild, particularly from January to March.

Trav.

The schedule has been posted, but not which companies are performing.

http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/Travel-Trade/What-To-Do/Events/telus- fire-on-ice

1st display is the 5th December.

Paul.

And now (thanks Alex Lussier) we have the list of companies:

December 5: Ampleman Pyrotechnie
December 12: BEM Pyrotechnie
December 19: Royal Pyrotechnie
December26: FAE Pyrotechnie

http://www.quaysoftheoldport.com/en/activities/activities.aspx?aid=70

Paul.

And now (thanks Alex Lussier) we have the list of companies:

December 5: Ampleman Pyrotechnie
December 12: BEM Pyrotechnie
December 19: Royal Pyrotechnie
December26: FAE Pyrotechnie

Good ! Not that it's much of a surprise, but I hoped they didn't cancel the displays due to the 2009 economic crisis. Telus sure does a lot of money with the text messages fees and the like to be able to sponsor both fireworks events in Montreal

Hi everyone

I just found out about this event - and I am booked for tomorrow night - Hope I get something decent - don't know the area so does anyone know where would be a good spot to shoot from? and does anyone know how long are those fireworks - do you think we will get half an hour of them each time?

Rachelita

Hi Rachel,

the best place is just to the west of the building that has the "Labyrinth" in it - http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=old+port+m ontreal+qc&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=50.37814,78.046875&ie=UTF8&hq=o ld+port&hnear=Montreal,+QC,+Canada&ll=45.509836,-73.550677&spn=0,359.9 80946&z=16&layer=c&cbll=45.50975,-73.550725&panoid=EUYsyig2vCPk5PX6X_C c2Q&cbp=12,117.17,,2,-2.75

The fireworks last for 15-20 minutes if I recall correctly - definitely not 30 minutes. Dress warmly as it's always windy there.

Paul.

THANKS PAUL

Well, tonight's show was quite good !

Ampleman used a lot of different shells and some nice cakes, even though their prestation felt a little repetitive at times.

The explosions felt very powerful. At first, I thought that big aerial shells were used (around 10 to 12 inches), but the distance between the mortars and the spectators is no more than 200 meters thanks to Google Maps. Therefore, I'd think that the biggest bombs were probably 8 inches, although they sure felt bigger than that from the front left side of the ice rink where I stood.

I put up a small review and a picture gallery on my website.

Nice show, can't wait to see what B.E.M. has up its sleeves !

STL

thanks Simon for your message - your images are very nice and look quite similar to mine - I think you were standing closer to the scene - I was on the pathway east of the Bonsecours Basin - it was a beautiful show indeed, nice comfortable weather, live music, what more can you ask

Here are some of my images from this evening:
http://pbase.com/rachelita/telus

Paul, if you want to post any here on your site, of this series for the next four weeks, go ahead and pick the ones you want - they are all sized 800 pixels wide or 800 pixels high.

Perhaps next week, we will have some nice snow to accompany the Telus show.

Hi Rachel,

Thank you, as always, for sharing your exquisite fireworks photographs with us. Of the selection, these two were my favorite:

http://www.pbase.com/rachelita/image/120032498

http://www.pbase.com/rachelita/image/120032510

Perhaps next week, we will have some nice snow to accompany the Telus show.

A fair chance of that occurring. As much as I dislike snow (sorry lol), that Winter storm I mentioned briefly yesterday in time for later Wednesday may bring us a good amount of the white stuff depending on the overall temperature tendency. As such, we may actually have a blanketing of snow in time for next Saturday - the only problem we're facing is that temperatures will likely be a fair deal colder. "Winter storm" essentially is a term used to describe a storm possessing gusty winds and a variety of precipitation, although snow could potentially be the predominant type in Eastern Ontario and Southern Quebec.

Glad to hear that the display was so enjoyable.

Trav.

thanks Simon for your message - your images are very nice and look quite similar to mine - I think you were standing closer to the scene - I was on the pathway east of the Bonsecours Basin - it was a beautiful show indeed, nice comfortable weather, live music, what more can you ask

Well, thanks for your comment ! Still, I like yours better, as the colors seem more vibrant than mine. Yet, we use both Canon DSLRs (respectively XTi in my case and 40D for you); do you boost saturation in post-processing ?

Like I mentioned, I was standing close to the firing ramps, SW from the skating rink. A 10-20mm zoom is sure useful in that kind of situation

STL

Thanks to both Rachel and Simon for their photos.

Having been to most of the Feux Sur Glace displays the past few years I would agree with STL that it was quite good. The tempo of the display was (somewhat atypically) downbeat as Ampleman favoured slow musical numbers to faster ones - it convincingly got across the idea of their theme which had to do with the coming of winter. While I did not find it much more repetitive than most other Feux Sur Glace displays, I believe that Ampleman recycled a soundtrack device that they've used in the past (perhaps I'm mistaken and it was another firm that has used it) which saw the firm use gusting winter winds to segue between segments. I really liked how it was used last year (or the year before) but did not appreciate it as much the second time around.

All in all it was a lovely evening, as has been mentioned above. I, again, hope to be there this coming Saturday.

Tyler

thanks

I used the D40 and the 17-40 and wished I had brought my 10-22 instead, but there is still a next time

In post processing, I usually use a very large brush on the burn tool, set to shadows at about 20% and pass quickly over the areas which contains a lot of smoke. This makes the smoke areas darker but does not touch the highlight areas, i.e. the fireworks themselves. Then I use also a brush on the dodge tool and set it to highlights and pass the brush on some of the highlights that got lost behind the darker background - so that sort of increases contrast overall, but where I want it to show - sometimes I will simply use the saturation brush and go over some of the colors on some of the fireworks, but will rarely use saturation over the entire image.

Hope that helps. Also I always underexpose by -1 at the time of taking the shot

Therefore, I'd think that the biggest bombs were probably 8 inches,

STL, 6 inches is the maximum allowed. At least it was last year. Glad you enjoyed the show.

STL, 6 inches is the maximum allowed. At least it was last year. Glad you enjoyed the show.

Well, then my eyes played tricks on me ! The following picture shows half a burst and it was huge in person ! I never though that 6 inches shells could make so big of an explosion.



Well, you know better than I on that topic ! 6 inches max. does makes sense regarding to the distance from the mortars if I remember the course correctly.

STL

C'est bien de la 6'' qui est tiré sur le site, le service des incendie font eu même le check pour s'assurer qu'on respecte les normes.

Certaine bombe ouvres plus gros q'une bombe régulière, c'est le cas pour la gamme de produits red eagle, elle ouvres presque comme des 8''.

C'est bien de la 6'' qui est tiré sur le site, le service des incendie font eu même le check pour s'assurer qu'on respecte les normes.

Certaine bombe ouvres plus gros q'une bombe régulière, c'est le cas pour la gamme de produits red eagle, elle ouvres presque comme des 8''.

Wow ! C'est quand même un peu comique de voir une bombe qui monte aussi haut et dont l'explosion est presque équivalente à une 8" être considérée malgré tout comme une 6".

En tout cas, tant mieux si c'est permis, ça permet d'ajouter du piquant au spectacle.

Est-ce que quelqu'un sait combien ça coûte par spectacle ? Si le chiffre de 150 000 $ pour l'International des Feux Loto-Québec est exact, un feu du calibre des Feux sur glace ne doit certainement pas dépasser les 50 000 $...

C'est formellement interdit de mettre a feux des bombes 6'' sur le quai jacque-cartier.

Le service des incendie de montréal est assez sévère sur la sécurité d'un feux d'artifice, tout est scruté a la loupe, du moins lorsqu'il font la visite du site a la dernière heures avant le feux..

L'budget oscille normalement dans les 18 000-20 000$ c'est l'prix d'une voiture quoi! C'est Telus qui est le sponsor de l'évènement, donc il use de nos factures de message textes pour faire ces évènements! lol

C'est une question de distance, puis bon le 6'' fait ampleman le travail sur un feux de cet envergure.

Si le chiffre de 150 000 $ pour l'International des Feux Loto-Québec est exact, un feu du calibre des Feux sur glace ne doit certainement pas dépasser les 50 000 $...

There's a difference between cost and price. The Montreal competition displays are not a good benchmark to use for pricing as the competitors usually do not try to make a profit from them whereas a public display like the Feux Sur Glace ones will certainly be for-profit. Fireworks companies are not charities! The 18-20k quoted above sounds about right from what I've seen of the displays and what I've worked on myself over the years.

As for shell size, 6" is definitely the maximum - but some hard-breaking shells often appear to be "one size" bigger than one would think. This was dramatically demonstrated when Royal introduced their Dancing Dragon products at the Canadian Fireworks Association convention in Calgary there were gasps from the audience as the 2" shells broke like 3s, the 3" like 4s and the 6" definitely like 8". A good 6" shell as close up as the safety regulations allow is always impressive. People forget that in the Montreal competition the 6" shells are at almost the same distance from the audience as the 8, 10 and 12" shells and so seem smaller than is the case in other venues.

Paul.

Hmm good evening to see the BEM fireworks display! I gotta go see that show!

Hi guys ! No videos this year ?

you can put your videos on my site Paul, if you are looking for a place to host them

A good show by B.E.M., with a lot of smoke and some burning debris as an unwanted bonus.

I think their pace was better than Ampleman, as I did not found the show to be repetitive. Yet, I sometimes kept my attention on the flaming debris so I might have missed some sequences. Still, the maltese wheel was a very nice addition.

This is the last time I get so close from the firing ramps, as the resulting pictures are too cramped for my liking, even if I make good use of my 10-20mm super wide zoom. You can see what I mean on the obligatory link to my website.

Well, next week I'll experience first hand what it feels like to be on the firing ramps. I somehow managed to convince Royal that I'd like to work with them as an assistant, so they booked me on two events : next week's Fire on Ice and New Year's Eve show. I just hope I won't be frozen solid at the end of the day !

STL

Thanks Simon for your post and your images

I just started editing mine so here are a few which you can see on either my facebook page or higher resolution ones on my pbase website

PBASE: http://pbase.com/rachelita/telus (all the ones which title starts with telus-BEM)

FACEBOOK:
Share this album with anyone by sending them this public link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=356126&id=649195051&l=261386f753

The smoke and wind were problemetic for me however. I liked to see the snow and ice on some of my shots, so that made it different from last week - I also enjoyed the music

I shot from a different point of view and did not see the debris flying as I was a lot further - but the burning smell was intense and affected my poor asthma afflicted lungs - I am fine now but I sure was happy not to be as close as you were Simon.

J'ai bien aimée le feux, a l'exception des débris des bombes kamuro qui tombait sur le public, moi j'y avait pensé d'avance ou m'installer en sachant la direction des vents, donc j'ai eu une très belles vue du feux et j'ai reçus a peines quelque débris, mais sa gardait du piquant pendand le feux après tout!

J'ai aimée la roue maltaise, est-ce la première fois aux fire on ice? Je m'en rappelle pas d'avoir vus sa les années précédente.

Bad for you Rachelita, the black powder smell is the best fragrance!

Next, Royal..

Does anybody have an idea as to the general compass direction most of the audience faces when viewing these displays? I have an idea of the site and its surroundings, but I'm not too certain where most of the audience tends to congregate to watch the fireworks. Based on Rachel's comment regarding the smoke and wind, however, I'm guessing that most of the spectators are facing the Southwest direction as that is where the winds were coming out from yesterday evening after shifting from the earlier Westerly flow.

I'm simply asking as I would like to incorporate the possibility of smoke inconvenience into the forecasts.

Trav.