Keith Francis  


Cannon Fire by Keith Francis

February 2025 - Cannon Fire

About the Image(s)

Point Clear on the east side of Mobile Bay, Alabama has a lovely old hotel, Grand Hotel, that was a playground for the somewhat rich and famous long ago. The location also played a role in the Civil War and both WWs. Each day at 4:00 PM the hotel does a ceremonial firing of an old cannon to pay honour to all those who were / are in the service. The ceremony only takes about 10 minutes but is quite interesting to see. They are firing blanks over the bay because, as the person said, the Coast Guard would get quite upset if they shot live rounds.
R5, continuous shooting (got 15 images and selected the best), f/9.0, ISO = 100, shutter speed = 1/30 sec, processed with ACR / PS with general image tweaks (lighting, colour sat, etc.). I also had to do quite a bit of image clean up using both content-aware fill and generative fill (my view of the cannon was obstructed by safety barriers to keep people like me out of harm’s way).


9 comments posted




Prasad Indulkar   Prasad Indulkar
Wow superb image, would have loved to see much wider image to see where the cannon's are aiming at. but this one is very clear and sharp one.   Posted: 02/04/2025 02:14:05
Kathleen Colligan
If you look at this month's showcase for PSA, one of my photos got posted there   Posted: 02/04/2025 22:52:24
Comment Image



Keith Francis   Keith Francis
Thanks Prasad. Re the view, I shot this at 55mm, could have gone down as low as 24mm but it would have shown a couple of elements further down the walkway that I didn't want in the image (the cannon was aimed over the water)   Posted: 02/04/2025 02:18:12



Laurie McShane
Very interesting information about the history, and a cool shot! I love the folks in the background covering their ears. You caught it all just perfectly. Might possibly want to consider taking a little off of the top....?   Posted: 02/04/2025 19:40:01
Keith Francis   Keith Francis
Good thought, I will try playing with a crop. Thanks   Posted: 02/04/2025 21:34:48



Kathleen Colligan
You had the perfect timing to get that shot midair! It's too bad that one cement sliver on the bottom right could have been avoided, but that is being picky. Overall, that does not take away the wow aspect of your photo.   Posted: 02/04/2025 20:33:00
Keith Francis   Keith Francis
Oh my goodness, never even noticed that strip. Since posting this image I've tweaked it a bit and now I will go fix that strip. Thank you   Posted: 02/04/2025 21:34:07



Harrison Ball   Harrison Ball
Perfect timing and a great capture! I like the framing and the smoke covers any distractions in the background. The imager is well exposed and sharp.   Posted: 02/04/2025 21:28:49



Harrison Ball   Harrison Ball
Perfect timing! I can almost hear the BOOM. Your dynamic range is spot on with detail in the sky as well as the canon on may firing it. I wonder if you could have cropped the right lower edge of the frame to get rid of cement next to the bricks?   Posted: 02/06/2025 10:38:06



 

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