Edmonton Folk Festival from our balcony

Anna: Our balcony happens to be directly across the river from the park used by the Edmonton Folk Festival. The festival starts tonight, but last night they had a sort of pre-concert, with performances by Tracy Chapman, Meaghan Smith and Sarah McLachlan. We can't really hear much, but this is what we can see.

(click on images for access to larger sizes)



This was taken using Philippe's 70-300mm lens at almost maximum zoom. This is the crowd about 45 minutes before the concert was supposed to start.



Usually candles are sold on the grounds, but for this night people were given free candles at the entrance. It made for a lovely sight! This is a 2 second exposure.

Then I decided to experiment. :-D



I switched to manual and tried a technique I'd read about in a photography magazine. It's a 30 second exposure, but I started it at minimum zoom. For the first 10-15 seconds, I slowly zoomed in as far as it would go, then left it for the remaining exposure time. I tried it the other way around, too. This one turned out the best, I think.