Have a Blast of a Good New Year!

   ...from a photographer's notebook

Detail from "FawkesBlossoms" ©2013 Steve Ember

So, let's hope you did not wake up this New Year's Day, after too much partying New Year's Eve, seeing - and hearing - something resembling the image above. Or wake up several times in the middle of the night, imagining you were, after downing too many of those flaming filet of Mongolian Yak canapes at your NYE soiree. 

On the other hand, if you were raising a glass last night to such a sight over some glamorous metropolis, well good on ya.

About the photo...

It was November 5, which any self-respecting Brit would know as Guy Fawkes Day. Night had fallen, and from my London hotel room on Westbourne Terrace, it sounded as though the whole of Bayswater was under attack.

I had arrived that afternoon  and was napping away some jet lag – a bit longer than I’d expected to. But Bonfire Night was being celebrated with some major fireworks quite nearby, in Cleveland Square, so I sprinted out with a camera and joined the merry throngs, just in time to see the finale bursting overhead in the Westminster night sky.

I call them "FawkesBlossoms."  The image will appear on the November page of my new 2014 Calendar for Procrastinators. Watch this space for its debut announcement. Meantime, if you'd like to see "FawkesBlossoms" in higher definition, please follow this link.

As always, thanks for spending some time with the wee bloggie, and here's wishing you a 2014 full of health and happiness.

©2014 Steve Ember