Goodbye 2022, Halo 2023!

Happy New Year all!

Lackofcolor and I didn't feel so well, so we decided to stay at home with just the two of us to celebrate the year-switch. Comfy as we could make it, we filled our living room with a rain of pillows, and blankets and had a cozy movie night.

The Dutch are pretty notorious when it comes down to celebrating New Years Eve. This year was no different, even though there was a ban on fireworks. Lol. People all around us start firing off fireworks early in the morning until the next morning, around 3-4 AM. I remember that as I kid, I started at 11 o'clock in the morning, and took some sleep so I was ready for the big show where -everyone- in your neighborhood started igniting fireworks at the same time for everyone to enjoy. I went home around 6 AM, and my parents were furious (and both surprised I lasted that long) and ordered me to throw away all the remaining fireworks I had. We truly had a lot. LOL. It was such a fun time. But what a friggin' waste of money. I literally blew up all my savings as a 10-year-old, till the age of 16 or something. After that, I hated fireworks.

Oh well, memory lane is nice. But this year, it is the first time I got to spend it together with just 1 person, and as well with Lackofcolor. I guess we were both a bit 'uncomfortable' with the idea that it was "just the two of us" celebrating such an event, but in all honesty, it was very nice. Being away from all the expectations, the amount of "oliebollen" we had to eat, etc. Not gonna lie, but because I feel exhausted AF since early December, it was perfect. We had planned to play some board games during the day, but I just fell asleep on the couch and tucked in for a couple of hours. The next attempt didn't go further than having the idea in my head to play games with @lackofcolor.

So, the big show started at exactly midnight! And even though I laughed at lackofcolor of saying "oh nice, we can probably see all the fireworks from our window" (we live up high), I was super surprised to see SO MUCH fireworks. People really put in a lot of effort to forget 2022. And what can I say? The last couple of years were indeed pretty though.

1 in a thousand!!!

I thought it would be cool to take my camera, as I did a few years ago as well, to photograph (and hopefully isolate) the fireworks. The downside was, there is always this one big posing tree that blocks the view. After taking a few snaps, and trying to time it right when it exploded, I was pretty stunned when I saw that I actually did capture that 'exact moment' of explosion. To many, you might be wondering, well what in Karen's name is so special about this photograph, and what is this photographer's commotion all about? Ladies and gentlemen, this photograph right here, is a 1-in-a-thousand photograph, if not more.

This split second-explosions-capture would've been a lot different one MS later. Special? Yes. Because we can't see this stuff happening with our own eyes open. Our eyes manage to register 25 frames per second (FPS), it's that number we usually see when we're gaming.

And of course, the 'regular' fireworks shots

I was lucky enough to isolate some of the fireworks within my photographs. They are so stunning, and after some retouching and blending a few, I think I made a cool series of fireworks photographs to look back at. 2022 is over, let's hope 2023 brings good stuff with it.

It's so common, but is it?

Here in the Netherlands, it's quite common to throw your own fireworks on the street and make a show on your own. But, I'm pretty well aware that this isn't the case in many other countries. Germany is also known for it, as they sell their firecrackers just in the grocery store (LOL). So, what about you? Does your country allow you to fire off your own fireworks?

Cheers,
Ruben