John Bean, Spellbound by Ekka Fireworks Showers (LANDSCAPE 2020)

City and Town Show Days have been cancelled across the Country this year. 2020 marks the first year that our iconic Brisbane Ekka, usually held over a week in early August, has been cancelled in the post war years. The reason is COVID-19 health management. So my Ekka 2019 photos serve as a personally valued memory of just how engaging our annual Show is. Fireworks have always been an Ekka highlight, literally! The challenge has been to capture two themes concurrently, the fireworks firstly, and audience participation secondly. With fireworks the challenge is balancing bursts and streams of colour with minimal overlap, along with minimal ‘burnt’ detail. Preparation has helped, spending an evening experimenting with various camera/lens settings in situ (aperture, shutter speed, ISO). Then there’s audience participation. We all get mesmerised by the fireworks. We’re all eyes, ears and mobile phone cameras front centre. This consuming attention can be highlighted by the fireworks glare ‘falling on’ the crowd and backlighting or silhouetting their attention. So audience and fireworks become one, in a sense. There are actually two fireworks programmes each evening of the Ekka. One for young families at dusk. The other later at night. Each offers unique photo opportunities, such as the enthuastic boy in photo 3 expressing his glee.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.