2013 DADAOCHENG FIREWORKS FESTIVAL
Annually, the City of Taipei would hold a fireworks festival at the Dadaocheng Wharf. This Annual event would normally kick off in the afternoon, with various food stalls serving local Taiwanese delicacies, various live acts and performances before the actual fireworks were also provided to entertain the spectators. However, from the point of view of a photographer, this is not the place to go if you are really serious in getting some good photos of the fireworks, you don't go to the Dadaocheng Wharf, instead, there is a place just right across the river where most photographers would gather and thats where I was on the 10th of August of 2013. The place that I was talking about is the ZHONGXIAO WHARF ( 忠孝碼頭 ), Sanchong District, New Taipei City. Fortunately, this place is just a few minutes walk away from home. There is a straight line of elevated area that faces the river where the fireworks would take place. The schedule for the actual start of the fireworks is at 8:00pm, but in order to get a good spot, I need to be there to stake out earlier, when I got there at 2:30pm, the only
available remaining spots are almost to the end of line already, but I still count myself lucky to get a good spot even though I arrived late already as some of my fellow photographers were already there at noontime. So, I set up my gears and waited for the fireworks to start at 8:00pm. To ease the boredom of waiting, I have my headphone with me for some music, I also brought a foldable chair, and best of all, I have water, soda and chips. Seems more like
a picnic to me. 30 minutes before the fireworks, I started getting ready for the main event. checking and double checking all my settings, etc. and finally, at 8:00pm, the moment of truth, the 2013 DADAOCHENG FIREWORKS started. the spectacular fireworks lasted for 20 minutes. The fireworks was not only limited to the river, but it also shifted to the ZhongXiao Bridge, luckily, I was using a pistol grip ballhead on my tripod to easily manuever my focus to the ZhongXiao Bridge and manage to get some good shots of the fireworks there too. In retrospect, I was so blessed that I managed to get these decent fireworks pictures.
