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Despatches
August 2010 |
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Bastille Day firework display over Carcassonne, Aude, Languedoc-Rousillon, France.
(Canon 5D mkII, 70-200mm lens @ 173mm, 5 secs @ f11, ISO 100)
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I’m used to waiting; hanging around on hilltops is my lot in this life, and maybe the next too. Usually these vigils waiting for the sun to rise, appear from behind the clouds, filter through the trees or drop lower on the horizon are solitary. These are reflective moments, special times when the world can spin without me while I contemplate the meaning of life and the next meal. But tonight here on a rise looking down on the Cité of Carcassonne, waiting for darkness to fall, I am not alone. Wendy is with me, no surprise there, and also our film crew Mike & Matt, as we’re shooting video for the Photography In The Raw DVD. But also half of France seems to be here. Sweeping my eye across the landscape clusters of people are grouped on every available slope with a view of the Cité. Cars line every road for miles, le paysage est complet. I’d been warned it would be busy, but this is madness. I’m used to rural France being practically empty, sleepy and usually fermé, but tonight finding a suitable vantage point has been a trial. We arrived 5 hours before the event yet still every available space seemed to be occupied with camping chairs, tables set with the wine open and picnics well underway, and all because in 1789 an unruly Parisian mob set a bunch of criminals free. It’s Bastille Day in France.
Tonight the premier fireworks display in France is to take place over Carcassonne and as we’re in the area preparing for our Languedoc Workshops it would be madness not to witness the spectacle. But I didn’t quite take on just how full the landscape would be. I know the area well and some four years ago spent several days shooting Carcassonne every which way but loose. But the spot I had in mind from back then is no longer an option, that slope is now teeming with people and besides, a bank of trees has grown since my last visit encroaching on the view. So we approach the problem in a logical way, using the Landie’s GPS to creep along country lanes to the south of the Cite looking for high ground. Seek and ye shall find; eventually we discover a distant hilltop with a commanding view and only a handful of spectators encamped, so far. The Cité seems distant but that’s not a problem with a long lens. In fact its an advantage, the distant perspective sets the medieval Cité in the landscape with the Montagne Noire beyond; it’s a composition far better than we’d see if we were nearer and looking up at the ramparts.
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Carcassonne at dusk, Aude, Languedoc-Rousillon, France.
(Canon 5D mkII, 100-400mm lens @ 350mm, 3.2 secs @ f11, ISO 100)
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We set up and wait, spreading our stuff all around to claim our patch of France. I’m paranoid someone will hunker down in front of us, obscuring our view. As dusk settles the lights come on and I expose with the balance between the floodlights on the Cité and the last cool blue ambient light perfectly matched. The 100-400mm lens enables me to flatten the perspective, emphasising the scale of Carcassonne with the hills beyond. It works well, but this is just the entree, the plat principal will follow in an hour or so. So we wait, aided with the inevitable vin rouge, baguette and fromage. This is the way to work. A couple establish themselves on the slope in front; I curse, but its not a problem. They seem more intent on investigating each other’s recesses then the world around us.
Darkness falls, 1030pm slowly approaches and the excitement builds. I have never photographed fireworks before; will I get it right? Light levels will be all over the place, how will I expose? Finally the first explosion in the sky over the Cité bursts with colour and 30 minutes of pyrotechnic extravagance follows. It felt like just 5 minutes to me, I was so engrossed with the challenge.
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Bastille Day firework display over Carcassonne, Aude, Languedoc-Rousillon, France.
(Canon 5D mkII, 100-400mm lens @ 260mm, 30 secs @ f8, ISO 100)
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The key to the picture was getting the exposure on the ramparts right with the best possible fireworks streaking through the sky. The trouble was the light levels on the Cité were all over the place and there was no way of knowing what fireworks were coming and when. Basically I had to expose in manual mode for the walls and towers and let the fireworks do their own thing. Between 5 and 10 seconds at f11 with the ISO kept firmly at 100 seemed to be the average to work around. Timing was everything; the temptation was to have the sky full of explosive colour but too much caused highlights to burn out and a confusing riot of of streaks in the sky. I started with the 100-400mm telephoto but switched to the 70-200mm f2.8 half way through; optimum focal length for the composition was 180mm and I much prefer using the latter optic with its bright eyepiece image and crisp focusing. Of course I’ll not need to tell you the auto focus and image stabilisation were resolutely switched off.
All too quickly it was over. The writhing couple in the grass in front of us had finished boosting the population of France and were off. Next for us: the joy of sitting immobile in a traffic jam for 90 minutes on the fringes of Carcassonne in the middle of the night, losing the will to live. We returned to base at 2am. Would I do it again? No, I don’t cope well with crowds, but I’m chuffed we’ve seen the spectacle, and the pictures aren’t bad.
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