This past Wednesday, I shot photos at Les Grands Feux du Casino Lac-Leamy where the team from Garden City Display Fireworks in Beamsville was representing Canada. From my perspective as a photographer, if it could have gone wrong, it did: It started to rain just as I and the other photographers were getting ready to set up, so we sought shelter under a tent. This meant that we were rushed in getting to our shooting location and were scrambling to get things set up in time. I took a photo to check the framing, which is when I realized that I had the wrong lens on my camera. Normally, I use a 10-20mm wide-angle zoom to give me the widest field of view possible, but I had my 18-200mm zoom on it. Those 8mm make a significant difference in the field of view.

I started shooting photos and made adjustments to the camera to make the best of things. I resigned myself to the fact that some of the effects would be cropped by the smaller field of view.

Over the last few years, I’ve taken hundreds and hundreds of photos of fireworks. Most of them turned out quite well, and I’ve posted the highlights on my blog. In all the years I’ve been taking fireworks photos, I don’t think I’ve ever taken one that has made my jaw drop because of how it turned out.

Until now.

When I did my first cursory review of the photos in Lightroom, I almost rejected it. But when I took a second look, I was stunned by what I’d managed to capture.

I think I’m going to call it Spark Dancers.