[Sylar]Boom.[/Sylar]
You know when you get a really, really good patch of grass at a July 4th fireworks shoot where you can see everything and it even feels like that the fireworks will fall onto you you're so close to them?
Heh. Well, I was closer last night! I was as close as you could possibly get!
Tuesday evening after I got off of work the fam drove up north to Port Angeles in the state of Washington. We stood literally on Washington's border and were staring across the water and waving at Canada.
[Click for full image]
[There were ships going back and forth constantly, docking and disembarking all day. The couple in the foreground of the second one were both part of the crew. I didn't realize they were in the shot until I was sizing it down just now lol]
Wednesday morning we staggered out of our motel rooms and went to the coast. Our purpose: to help set up and shoot off the town's July 4th fireworks display.
Dad's good friend, Tim, from work has his license and does professional shows every year. He deals with the huge 3, 4, 5, and 6 inch mortars and charges and taught us how to do the same.
[Left: Afternoon and still setting up, putting the actual charges into the mortars. I'm on the left in the pinkish-red shirt and grey hat/ narniadear is on the right holding the binder/ Mom & Dad are in the foreground. Finished set up and ready to shoot.]
We had this little space of sand to set up before you hit the rocks and then the water basically. The sand had to be digged up into trenches and the mortars placed and angled for launching. That involved much grunting and is the hardest work of the setup.
Sand is really the only thing that will hold them in place and keep everything from blowing to pieces.
At any rate we loaded the charges into each one and made them ready to be lit, most of them were 4 inches and 5 inches (diameter).
Everything was checked, double checked, and rechecked again after the third checking...
We had started working at around 11am and ended at about 5:30pm. Personally I was under the impression that we would help with the set up and that would be it. I was excited about watching from a very good seat all of the work we'd done.
But Tim comes up to a few of the fam and me, "Who wants to shoot?"
"We can shoot? We're allowed to?" I sat on the edge of my lawn chair along with my brother, Evan.
Tim shrugged, "As long as you're over 18."
Heck yes! lol Evan and I had to fill out some paperwork before hand and after we had taken a break for a couple of hours and come back to have some dinner we were briefed on the way you're supposed to shoot and we were given our fire retardent equipment.
"Firesuit up!"
[From left: Evan, Dad and me in our full fire suit gear. It is amazing how official I felt in it lol]
All I saw of the actual fireworks were the shots at the beginning and the finale. During the rest of the show I was down on my hands and knees going across each row of mortars and lighting the fuses one after another. Tim put Evan on the 4 inchers and I was on the 5s. The difference is really that the 5s are the full, huge ones that go off in the sky. The 4s are smaller.
[One of the charges is being launched the moment the shot was taken. I'm pretty sure it's one of Evans actually. But that's where we were for the show :)]
The shots are SO loud and they just thump through your chest and body when they go off, every single one is a shock but you had to keep going and not get distracted. It took me lighting several ones before I could get a little more used to it so I expected the explosion after I lit it and could move on to the next one.
Each person lighting had someone watching them in case some hot ashes left over from the charges landed on them or if they weren't doing something the way they were supposed to.
I did get burned once. After one of the charges I lit launched it left behind some burning ash that floated down and slipped underneath my collar to the back of my neck. It was hot. I felt it on there and started patting the back of my neck and it went down to my front.
Dad saw me stopping and flapping at my chest and back like a dufus, "Laura, are you alright?"
Of course, I was just on fire for a little bit and I kept going. Until they were ready to do the finale and everyone who wasn't licensed got out of the sand pit and we layed out on the grass and watched the rest of it go off above us. SO MUCH FUN!
So I've got some sunburns and blisters from burning debris but I now have so much more respect for pyrotechnic guys everywhere for the preparations they have to make and the precautions they have to take just for our entertainment :) It was such a blast (no pun intended) and I'm quite sure not many people I know will have ever done it.
At the moment I am SO sore from the shoveling and lifting and crawling and whatever else I did yesterday. It feels like I've got two inch thick rubber bands connecting all of my bones together like a straight jacket, if that makes any sense.
In other news I have started reading Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, a book I would like to have done by the time the film would come out so...about two years at least :P It is very interesting so far but we all know that everything is going to be dropped when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out in three weeks! *SQUEE!* That includes my writing, which I've started up again, my original story that is. No more fan fic for a while. It was quite fun while it lasted.
Heh. Well, I was closer last night! I was as close as you could possibly get!
Tuesday evening after I got off of work the fam drove up north to Port Angeles in the state of Washington. We stood literally on Washington's border and were staring across the water and waving at Canada.
[Click for full image]
[There were ships going back and forth constantly, docking and disembarking all day. The couple in the foreground of the second one were both part of the crew. I didn't realize they were in the shot until I was sizing it down just now lol]
Wednesday morning we staggered out of our motel rooms and went to the coast. Our purpose: to help set up and shoot off the town's July 4th fireworks display.
Dad's good friend, Tim, from work has his license and does professional shows every year. He deals with the huge 3, 4, 5, and 6 inch mortars and charges and taught us how to do the same.
[Left: Afternoon and still setting up, putting the actual charges into the mortars. I'm on the left in the pinkish-red shirt and grey hat/ narniadear is on the right holding the binder/ Mom & Dad are in the foreground. Finished set up and ready to shoot.]
We had this little space of sand to set up before you hit the rocks and then the water basically. The sand had to be digged up into trenches and the mortars placed and angled for launching. That involved much grunting and is the hardest work of the setup.
Sand is really the only thing that will hold them in place and keep everything from blowing to pieces.
At any rate we loaded the charges into each one and made them ready to be lit, most of them were 4 inches and 5 inches (diameter).
Everything was checked, double checked, and rechecked again after the third checking...
We had started working at around 11am and ended at about 5:30pm. Personally I was under the impression that we would help with the set up and that would be it. I was excited about watching from a very good seat all of the work we'd done.
But Tim comes up to a few of the fam and me, "Who wants to shoot?"
"We can shoot? We're allowed to?" I sat on the edge of my lawn chair along with my brother, Evan.
Tim shrugged, "As long as you're over 18."
Heck yes! lol Evan and I had to fill out some paperwork before hand and after we had taken a break for a couple of hours and come back to have some dinner we were briefed on the way you're supposed to shoot and we were given our fire retardent equipment.
"Firesuit up!"
[From left: Evan, Dad and me in our full fire suit gear. It is amazing how official I felt in it lol]
All I saw of the actual fireworks were the shots at the beginning and the finale. During the rest of the show I was down on my hands and knees going across each row of mortars and lighting the fuses one after another. Tim put Evan on the 4 inchers and I was on the 5s. The difference is really that the 5s are the full, huge ones that go off in the sky. The 4s are smaller.
[One of the charges is being launched the moment the shot was taken. I'm pretty sure it's one of Evans actually. But that's where we were for the show :)]
The shots are SO loud and they just thump through your chest and body when they go off, every single one is a shock but you had to keep going and not get distracted. It took me lighting several ones before I could get a little more used to it so I expected the explosion after I lit it and could move on to the next one.
Each person lighting had someone watching them in case some hot ashes left over from the charges landed on them or if they weren't doing something the way they were supposed to.
I did get burned once. After one of the charges I lit launched it left behind some burning ash that floated down and slipped underneath my collar to the back of my neck. It was hot. I felt it on there and started patting the back of my neck and it went down to my front.
Dad saw me stopping and flapping at my chest and back like a dufus, "Laura, are you alright?"
Of course, I was just on fire for a little bit and I kept going. Until they were ready to do the finale and everyone who wasn't licensed got out of the sand pit and we layed out on the grass and watched the rest of it go off above us. SO MUCH FUN!
So I've got some sunburns and blisters from burning debris but I now have so much more respect for pyrotechnic guys everywhere for the preparations they have to make and the precautions they have to take just for our entertainment :) It was such a blast (no pun intended) and I'm quite sure not many people I know will have ever done it.
At the moment I am SO sore from the shoveling and lifting and crawling and whatever else I did yesterday. It feels like I've got two inch thick rubber bands connecting all of my bones together like a straight jacket, if that makes any sense.
In other news I have started reading Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, a book I would like to have done by the time the film would come out so...about two years at least :P It is very interesting so far but we all know that everything is going to be dropped when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows comes out in three weeks! *SQUEE!* That includes my writing, which I've started up again, my original story that is. No more fan fic for a while. It was quite fun while it lasted.