It started at midnight. Sparks were flying in the sky above the bay forming flaming flowers and various abstract shapes to make the New Year's Eve memorable.
Until 23 hours and 42 minutes, I played a video game to get a few screenshots for a cool contest in the Gaming Photography community, and then I suddenly felt inspired to drive half a kilometer to the harbor.
Today, I'm presenting what I collected through my camera during the small, local, fireworks event in my hometown.
Here you can see an animated GIF made of forty consecutive shots taken a few minutes after midnight.
The sparks were forming just a few shapes but those shapes were changing while disappearing into the surrounding darkness.
In this set of nine photographs, you can see a collection of formations that closely resemble some type of flowers that grow here in my area.
They are the main reason for the word "flowers" in the title.
In some cases, the firework was creating something that looked like a series of tentacles.
Here you can see one of those alien-looking things moving.
I wasn't aware of what exactly was caught in photographs while I was frenetically shooting with the camera pointed toward the sky.
Only later at home, when I transferred the photographs to the computer and saw all the details enlarged on the screen, did I start noticing the interesting diversity of shapes.
I mean, all that stuff was very similar but still different enough to look inspiring for a post like this.
Especially when presented as a collection of nine or more shots. These shapes look almost like they were made to be collectibles.
The shapes I presented so far are all fairly composed inside the frame and well-defined. That's becouse they were taken five or six minutes after the fireworks started.
It took me those five or six minutes to get my bearings and focus on the sparks that were appearing and disappearing quite quickly.
I started this project very clumsily.
I kept the shots wide at first, fearing that I wouldn't be able to catch the sparks if I zoomed in too much.
I caught some lights that way but they didn't look like I wanted them to look in this post.
I had to bring them closer.
Things weren't going too well in the first few minutes.
In this case, for example, I caught only a glimpse of the firework on the edge of the frame.
Fortunately ...
... with each new second passing, I was getting better at this fireworks hunt.
Some shapes looked very cool when animated.
There was magic in the air.
Almost literally.
At this point, I'm afraid I might be in a bit of trouble.
Why?
Well, it's becouse I still have plenty of shots and GIFs to show you ...
... but I don't know what else could I say.
I hadn't thought about that possibility when I started the photo essay or whatever you wanna call this thing I'm trying to put together.
If these were plants or animals, for example ...
... I could tell you the names of the species ...
... and talk a bit about their behaviors and habitat.
If these were buildings ...
... I could write a few words about their architectural elements and history.
But what the heck is there to say about a small-town firework?
Maybe I should go searching the Internet to get some fun facts and trivia about the history of fireworks.
Nah, I'm too lazy for that today.
Quite unexpectedly, this set of six photographs gave me a bit of inspiration and hope.
Here I can confidently say that I collected a nice variety of abstract shapes.
The picture in the middle of the upper row shows something that looks like a
constellation.
When the spectacle was over, this firework box kept burning on the edge of the parking lot in the harbor. The two-dimensional dragon looked great in combination with the real fire coming from the box.
The hands shown in this photograph ...
... belong to my friend Denis. He wanted to record and photograph the fire up close.
Denis is better known as 
He took many interesting photographs that night and created one video as well.
The following two links can take you to the posts that show the same fireworks through a different camera and a different set of eyes.
@denisdenis/hunting-for-new-year-s
Here you can see the lamps around the columns of the iconic gazebo in the park near the harbor.
The trunks of the nearby trees, decorated with the same type of lamps looked surprisingly similar to the columns from a certain angle.
This GIF shows the Christmas lights on the building across the street.
Here you can see the night bar on the most attractive stretch of the seaside promenade, a place where the party continued all night long.
AND THAT'S IT. AS ALWAYS HERE ON HIVE, THE PHOTOGRAPHS ARE MY WORK.
In this photograph, taken by
Here you can see how extremely close to the fire
In this shot of the same author, the distant fireworks resemble the illuminating thoughts on the way out of my head.