Wow, what a display this was! - Smoke, you were right, from my viewpoint, I was not affected at all by the direction of the winds - it was cold and that was just fine, it did not rain and the smoke moved on quickly enough.

Here are my images for this show: http://www.pbase.com/rachelita/australia2009

Hope you like them - I am certainly very pleased to see and be able to capture different formations in the sky.

Rachel,

That is a wonderful collection of shots. Thank you, as always, for sharing with the rest of us. I am glad that you were finally rewarded with the weather and wind that you'd been hoping for.

I look forward to seeing more of your fantastic work as the season progresses.

Thanks again,
Tyler

Don't forget, too, that the "six best shots" from Rachel are always up on my photo page: http://montreal-fireworks.com/photos-montreal2009.html - I post on the main site's index page when this gets updated.

Thanks to Rachel and Bob and Steve as well for some awesome photos again this season!

Paul.

Hi Rachel,

I am very delighted to see that, unlike the last two weeks, you were finally granted the ideal weather conditions for taking photographs! Indeed, the prevailing Westerlies (and the occasional NNW) at the time meant that those positioned on the Western banks of the St-Lawrence as well as those on the bridge had the best viewing conditions for the Australian display. With winds at borderline light-moderate speed, the smoke was clearing out fast enough, which still made for fairly good viewing at La Ronde overall. However, regardless of wind speed, the smoke was often headed Eastward, and so this became, at times, quite incovenient to a fair number of folks at La Ronde due to them frequently inhaling smoke, as was the case in your area last week.

Aside from the weather, I really love the captures you've managed to acquire, and they certainly look even more spectacular thanks to the wind (for a change lol) and lower humidity. I particularly loved these:

http://www.pbase.com/rachelita/image/114701030

http://www.pbase.com/rachelita/image/114624605

http://www.pbase.com/rachelita/image/114701001

http://www.pbase.com/rachelita/image/114701028

I don't think that this coming Saturday's wind direction and speed would be too much of a problem for most viewers. There is, though, the risk for more unsettled weather as we get a consistent Southerly flow from the next system moving in. This does mean a return of more Summer-like weather by end-week, however. I'll have more on all of that as the week progresses.

Thanks again, Rachel, for the exquisite photos!

Trav.

thanks everyone for your comments and thanks Trav for showing me your favorites - only one of these was part of my selection sent to Paul for inclusion on this site here. It goes to show how everyone has a different taste for the images.

Let's hope that this saturday will bring us favourable conditions once again.