Fireworks Photos at the Empire State Plaza, 2011 Edition

I’ve developed several “traditions” in my life of late.

• Every Thanksgiving Day, I will deliver meals for the Equinox Thanksgiving Day project.
• Every Christmas Day, I will try to photograph something that is previously inaccessible due to traffic – photographing off I-787, for example.
• Every time I travel to Quebec, I will stop that that Tim Horton’s in St-Liboire, Que. and try to order from their menu in French.  Note that I said “try.”
• Every summer, I need to visit the Great Escape and ride the Comet roller coaster.  Front seat.  That’s mandatory.

And every Independence Day, I will travel to the Empire State Plaza and take photographs of the evening fireworks.

Yesterday was Independence Day.  The tradition continues.

In addition to bringing the Nikon D700 – which will do the majority of the photos for the Plaza fireworks show – I’m bringing several of my film cameras.  I may only be able to get one shot off from some of the trick and toy cameras, just because  I won’t be able to see the little red window on the back of those cameras in the darkness to wind the film to the next frame.  So if I get one shot from those cameras, I’ll be happy.

Basically for the film cameras, I’m packing a 36-exposure roll of Fuji Velvia 100 into the Nikon F100; and a roll of Kodak Ektachrome 64T tungsten-balanced 120 film into the Rolleiflex.

The other cameras?  Well, it’s going to be hit or miss.  The Kodak Brownie Bull’s-Eye has a pack of repsooled 620 Fujichrome in it.  I have a pack of Kodak Verichrome Pan film in the Ansco Cadet.  The Holga has two rolls of split-film in it – a pack of Rite Aid 200 film and a pack of old Konica Minolta VX-200 film.  And the Agfa Chief has some Fuji Velvia 100 “Swiss-rolled” into a pack of Kodacolor-II 616 film.

Seven cameras.  Everything from digital to film, from expensive to toy.

Now I won’t be able to post the film shots until after McGreevy Pro Lab develops them… but the digital shots will appear on this blog.

It’s 3pm, and I’m pulling Cardachrome into the Eagle Street parking garage.  Yeah, I should park on the first level, so that I can get out of the parking garage after the fireworks end.  But no, I don’t want to schlep seven cameras up and down several flights of stairs to get to my prime shooting location.  I pull into the corner of the roof level of the parking structure.

Another car – a GMC truck – is parked there.   I pull in alongside, we exchange smiles and hellos, and I set up my tripod. In other words – I now have dibs.

I then went over to the Plaza concourse, where along the way, I ran into – of all people – Miss Brace, the dental hygienist from my dental team of Mohler and Choo, D.D.S.  We say hello – she brought her daughter to the Plaza with her, and they came to have a good time.

I should say that the temperature at the Plaza was charitably in the low 90’s.  It was a broiler out there, and I probably went through about six diet colas and bottled waters to keep cool.  I also found unique ways to kill time until the fireworks were to start – including playing a game of UNO with two other people.  Let me tell you something.  UNO should never be played by any less than three people.  After a while, those “SKIPS” and “REVERSES” are useless in a two-handed game.  Then again, we went through the deck three times before someone UNO’d out.  No, it wasn’t me.  Someone placed their final card and stuck me with a DRAW FOUR.  Good thing we weren’t keeping score.

I also watched some of the entertainment – there was a trampoline acrobatic team, they were quite entertaining.  There was a performance by the Irish band Hair of the Dog, they had the crowd entertained, and even did a version of the song “Black Velvet Band,” which I remember as being the B-side of the Irish Rovers’ song “The Unicorn.”  What a great memory.

Then there was some four-person rock band from the Radio Disney stable called “Kicking Daisies.” Feh.  Sounded like every teen-rock band out there.  When your set list includes Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” and No Doubt’s “Just a Girl,” you need to write more songs.  You do.  Sorry, the fact that these tween-rockers are getting radio airplay in the Capital District and Phantogram can’t even get a sniff of radio airplay on FLY 92… that’s just wrong on about ten levels.

It’s 7pm.  I make my way back to the garage.  It’s time to set up my cameras.  Other people are bringing their cameras to the location as well.  A photographer named Kevin brought his Canon EOS 5D camera.  A photographer named Pat – he works for the Gazette – had several cameras and set up his tripod next to mine.

It’s now 830pm.  It’s getting dark.  The fireworks should start at any moment.

“What’s up, Street Academy?” someone said.

I turned around – there was John and Aurora, two players from the trivia team “The Fist,” a team named after the Elbo Room’s cholesterol-bullet sandwich of various meats and cheeses, all topped with a fried egg.  Yum.  Good to see them again.  Hope to see them when the Elbo Room’s next money tournament begins.

915pm.  The first shells fly into the air.

Camera at the ready.

Wanna see the fireworks?

Click on the slideshow.

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=104087

Like those photos?  I like ’em too.

Now keep in mind; I have more photos to show, but those other photos were taken with my film cameras.  As soon as those pictures are developed, I’ll share them in a future blog post.  I promise.

It’s now 10pm.  Nobody’s getting out of the parking garage, the traffic attempting to exit the Empire State Plaza is like blood flowing through a plaque-coated artery.  To kill some time, I hang out with some partiers, while an organization called “Small Town Sound” entertained the garage patrons with standard dance music fare.  Nothing like seeing a bunch of drunken fools “shotgun” cans of Bud Light and then try to dance to “The Cha Cha Slide.”  Hilarity ensues.  A couple of them had too many “shotguns” of Bud Light, and ended up sneaking behind a parked truck to – well, let’s say there were no bathrooms around, and you really only rent beer, you don’t own it…

I started to make my way to my car, when all of a sudden I heard an elderly woman asking if anyone had jumper cables.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.  “Is your car battery dead?”

“Not mine,” she said.  “This woman who brought her kids to the fireworks, her car is dead.”

I walked over.  The driver – her name was Jamie – looked absolutely distraught.  And the kids she brought with her to the event – although they were well-behaved – looked like they wanted to go home after seeing the best fireworks show ever.

Somebody has to have jumper cables, I thought.  I walked around to see if any of the drunken fools possessed the magic wires.  Nobody did.  I went back to the woman and said, “Do you have AAA?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Okay,” I replied, “let’s call them.  They’ll send a truck over and jump your car.”

Well, not only was Jamie in possession of a charged battery, she was also in need of a charged cell phone.  No problem.  I called AAA on my phone, handed her my phone and let her give the AAA representative all the pertinent information.  “We’ll send a truck out as fast as we can,” the AAA representative said.

I agreed to stay with Jamie and her family until the tow truck arrived.  This is what you do.  You help out whenever you can.

I then noticed that the Small Town Sound team was done for the night; with that in mind, maybe they might have some jumper cables or a battery charger.

Well, they didn’t have one – but next to them, in possession of a battery charger, were a couple of off-duty firefighters from the Fulton County rescue squad, who come to the fireworks every year.  That afternoon, they were passing the time by playing Polish horseshoes.  After the fireworks, they were charging up another person’s dead car battery.

“Hey,” I called out.  “When you’re done there, could you please help this lady over here?”

Without hesitating, the two firefighters brought the battery charger over.  A few moments later, Jamie’s Kia Sedona was charged and ready to drive out of the parking lot.  Much thanks to the crew of the Fulton County Rescue Squad for their help.  And thankfully, Jamie and her family were able to make their way back home.

And I got back home – just in time to write this blog post up and share it with you.  Hope you all enjoy the photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!