Plot night

Plot night or Bonfire night, just a name for the 5th of November celebrations.  I always felt a tad sorry for Guy or Guido Fawkes as he wasn't the 'leader' of the group that planned to blow up parliament.  Anyway, those events were over 500 years ago!  These days, even in New Zealand, where I suspect hardly anybody knows anything about the plans of Robert Catesby to blow up Britain's Parliament, we buy fireworks and set them off on the 5th of November each year.

We're no different to all the other Kiwis.  Off to the shops to buy a selection of explosives with which the celebrate the failure of the gunpowder plot, waiting for it to go dark and then battling with the matches in the breeze as we attempt to light the fuse paper.

This year, however, we bought more 'sparklers' than actual fireworks and got the children to draw patterns in the sky as they danced and lept around the back yard.  I put the camera on a tripod, used a wide angle lens, small aperture and set the shutter to bulb.  We had a wonderful time.  They were exhausted and ready for bed when we'd finished and I got some reasonable shots.  They tried writing their names and other words, but these didn't come out as well as the stars.

So there you go ... heaps for fun, exercise for the kids and probably the cheapest 'fireworks' in the shop!