In May of 2017, the city of Montreal was celebrating its 375th anniversary. The city planned a late-night fireworks display from St Helen’s Island in the middle of the Saint Lawrence river. The 2.7 kilometer Jacques Cartier bridge joins the north and south shore of the river and passes over the island. I real-ized that from an outlook atop the Mount Royal (an ancient volcano in the city), I would have a good view of the festivities and could capture the urban landscape and the light display. On a map, I calcu-lated that a direct line from the viewpoint to the bridge is almost 5 km. So, I needed my tripod and long focal lenses.

On that day, sunset was at 20:20, and at 22:00, I started to shoot. I used a 320 mm focal length (35 mm eq) to capture the bridge and the surroundings. To amplify the firework effects, I opted for a long ex-posure of 2.5 seconds. To increase contrast and emphasize the spectacle, I reduced the highlights and luminosity under the bridge during post processing.