You might not be surprised by the amount of times I hear people tell me that I must hate Canada to not live here anymore. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. To me, Canada is easily the greatest country on the planet. We have some of the most beautiful natural scenery in the world, a wealth of healthy wildlife, some vibrant cities, and a population of some of the nicest, most caring, people in the world. I love this country with everything I have, and I am insanely proud to come from such a special country. Although I may only be in this country a couple days a year, each of those days spent on Canadian soil is as precious to me as those spent on exotic lands. In fact, because I am away so much I might appreciate these moments more than I would have otherwise.
This was the first time I spent Canada Day in Canada for 3 years, and I felt privileged, and a little bit emotional, to be able spend it on home soil.
How I Got This Shot
Taking photos of fireworks really isn’t as challenging as you might think. When it comes down to it, the most important thing is figuring out where the fireworks will be shot from so you can form a composition. In this photo of the fireworks on Canada Day in Tofino, I set up along a fence from a viewing area and tried to capture the landscape and the fireworks. I also tried to place the fireworks at the 1/3rds mark of the photo, although this image shows them a little bit farther to the edge.
Anyways, you’ll want to use a long exposure to capture multiple fireworks if possible (I used a 30 second exposure here), so you’ll need your tripod and a trigger. You also might want to compensate your exposure by underexposing by one or two stops if you’re reading the light without the fireworks in the shot. Then, the truth is, getting a cool photo of the fireworks really comes down to a lot of luck since you can’t control where the firework go and which ones are set off.
That’s all for me! Happy Canada Day!