New Year's eve countdown calls for either parties, sleeping the year through or photography opportunities. Parties are already a no-no for a domesticated me *meow*, so that leaves me with either sleep or clickety-click! And so I chose the latter.

Earlier in the day, my hubby and I drove round the Curve area to scout for a nice place to make-out ... ahem, errr, I mean to photograph the fireworks display later in the night :P We found two places - an open, deserted area nearby The Curve/Ikano, and an open parking area in Damansara Perdana overlooking The Curve. We decided to go for the deserted area nearby the shopping mall, but instead ended up in Damansara Perdana!

Reaching there around 9.30pm, the parking area was deserted and we had second thoughts if the place was going to be safe. We actually went with my sister, her hubby and their super-cheeky son. Having some drinks at a nearby mamak while waiting for the time to pass, we made crazy stories of being hijacked, robbed, etc. But whaddaya know, by the time we went to that place again later at around 11, there were already a few families there. *phew* what-a-relief! Minutes later, I decided to "pre-book" a spot and proceeded to setup the tripod and camera. More people starting coming in, *phew* extra relieved!

I took a few test shots. I was hoping the fireworks would be launched in between the Curve building (left) and the Cineleisure (right). And I told myself I need to get the first few shots right before the smoke builds up.



Few more minutes, and it was 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 ... boom, bam, boom.



And I was like "sh*t, it's on the right!! Alamak!!! Fast, fast, re-compose, re-compose ... urgh!"

Re-composed, and proceeded to press the remote shutter happily!



And then, it was boom-bam-boom somewhere else ... there, right at the spot where I initially hoped it would be!!! Urggghhh ... re-compose, re-compose ... quick, quick!!! :)

They got bigger ...

... and higher!

And I decided to try another composition.



And went click-click-click all the way!

Trying out black-and-white.

One more ...

And finally, a sky blanketed with the smoke from the fireworks. The white streak of light you see on the top-left was from a helicopter that was hovering above the area right after the fireworks display.



We quickly packed our stuffs and headed off, hoping to beat any traffic congestions!

The display went on for a good 10 to 15 minutes, giving me enough time to recompose and such. Only disappointment I have is not being able to capture the first few moments without the heavy smokes, but overall I'm pretty happy with the outing this time as compared to the fail-fail-fail one I had last year in KLCC.

Labels: celebration, fireworks, new, year