Gunpowder, treason and plot Photo

Photographer’s Note

Remember, remember,
the fifth of November,
gunpowder, treason and plot

Back in 1605 an enterprising mercenary by the name of Guy Fawkes was employed to blow up the Houses of Parliament with gunpowder. The plot was foiled however, and he was hung for his efforts. Symbolically we have commemorated the event with fireworks ever since. More on the plot can be found here.

Fireworks themselves however date back far further than that, but exactly how far back is a matter of some debate. Gunpowder itself is said to originate from China, although the timescale varies between 900-2000 years, there's an interesting (but I suspect apocryphal) tale involving a cook surrounding that event. More on that here.

Modern fireworks are a fascinating work of science, particularly chemistry. Did you know that the red colour you see in this shot comes from the element Strontium? If you knew that, did you know that the compound that actually makes the colours is too unstable to be used directly - and actually is formed by a reaction during the explosion? Well, if you're interested there's quite a bit of information about that here!

In case you're wondering why I posted this nearly a week ahead of schedule - that's easy, we generally have fireworks events a week each side of the day itself in addition to those on the day itself, so people can get to see more than one display :)

RAW converted using CanonEVU, Cropping, Levels, and minor USM. Apologies for the JPEG artifacts, but unless I make the image size quite a bit smaller it doesn't compress very well

nbournas, thebecky, Kenny10pin, danbachmann, Didi, chrisdane, maloutim has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

sayzey (2358) 2004-10-30 20:39

Superb shot! I really like the sharpness of the explosion lines! I'm hoping to get some good shots myself next week!

You left out the most important part from your Gunpowder plot story! Guy Fawkes was not only hung, his body was then burned on a bonfire, hence the term Bonfire Night. I enjoy the fireworks, but it annoys me that the history is lost with many people, i.e. my little sister refers to it as fireworks night, and has no idea who Guy Fawkes was! but I suppose now everything is commercialised and the original messages are often lost.

flip89 (3345) 2004-10-30 21:07

Excellent ... the composition is great, abstract in nature especially with the smoke blurred in the background.

nbournas (3223) 2004-10-30 22:52

Beautiful and crisp clear shot, good job Adrian.

thebecky (686) 2004-10-31 0:40

Great shot, lovely clean colours. Nicely done.

coasties (0) 2004-10-31 1:09

Wow! Very impressive shot. Good DOF and I love the colours! Well done!

burdallet (0) 2004-10-31 4:17

It's not easy to capture a such short shoot
BRAVO !

Megamuff (34) 2004-10-31 4:39

Fred,
Your portfolio is Awesome!!!
The colours came out so vivid in this shot!!
Luv It!!
G'Day and Cheers,
Suzan :)

Kenny10pin (19301) 2004-10-31 7:30

I like the fireworks here, really well taken and good job, very good use of the tripod

well done

Ebbe (9571) 2004-10-31 12:21

A great fireworks shot. The stars are well defined and the picture free from distractions. Nice triang´le formed by the three centerpoints.

Xalkida (11740) 2004-10-31 15:42

A not easy theme as fireworks are captured well here! Very nice shot! Excellent composition!

Porteplume (3257) 2004-11-01 12:06

Still... You should have waited six more days... ;o)))

So glad to see work from you Adrian. It's a great shot, the fires are so perfectly situated in the composition, and the smoke makes a wonderful background as shadows.
A beautiful image, a pleasure for my eyes!

Didi (36516) 2004-11-04 12:46

Un feu d'artifice parfaitement commenté.
Le cadrage serré est excellent et la luminosité éblouit mes yeux.

A fireworks accompanying with interessant notes. Tight framing is excellent and the luminosity dazzles my eyes.

Janice (4386) 2004-12-07 3:22

Excellent shot. Great capture, I know as I had to delete all my firework shots this year. Well done...

afderrick (330) 2005-06-16 17:19

Cool fireworks looking shot. I wish I could get one. I really like how you've captured it. You'll have to give me some pointers I can use before 4th of July.

yogi32 (797) 2006-02-04 16:31

hi, wonderful shot, great !!!! regards Igor

thor68 (5537) 2006-07-10 14:16

hehe, i thought this sounded familiar, just watched the movie
"V for Vendetta" a couple days ago, and that line was the beginning of it. sorry, late again for this amazing shot, adrian! :-)
perfect timing and terrific composition with the
3 "explosions" and the lines they create.
this will a good example for me the next time i try to capture
fireworks, as i haven´t done that very often yet.
thanks & take care, thorsten.

kevinos (6927) 2006-09-17 9:08

This a dramatic picture and a very English scene.It quite take me back. Although, as a child and a Catholic then, we always kept indoor on bonfire night, since it was still somthing of an anti Catholic festival (They burnt an image of the Pope in Lewis in those days- maybe they still do) . In fact the tradition of bonfires in Novemebr and the buring of efigies, goes back to pagan times. The link to the 'historical' account is interesting too,if rather partial. But, even in that rather extreamist account, it raises questions in the end. It seems clear that the so called plot was a pretext to repress Catholic ristence and may never have really occured. It reminds me of recent British get-up-tos in infiltrating the IRA. In the end ,we don't know where the IRA stopped and British Intellgence began

gpsony (478) 2007-02-19 6:50

Hi Adrian,

Am echoing others notes. Clean colours, Clear and no distortions.

Great Stuff.

Cheers,
Guru

rajhema (1867) 2007-07-23 11:30

Adrian, Please see my fireworks and comment it
http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/North_America/United_States/photo685669.htm

I'm not looking for points. Just give me your comments.
Also please look my TL post as well.
http://www.treklens.com/gallery/North_America/United_States/photo309674.htm

Cheers
Rajesh