The title of this pano is, "Hauoli Makahiki Elua-K!!" That's Hawaiian for roughly "Happy Year 2-K!!"
In Hawaii, for over a century it has been customary to celebrate the New Year with fireworks -- mostly firecrackers, sparklers and ground fountains. (Aerial fireworks were outlawed in the 1960s as being too dangerous, but they are still smuggled in by container-load, to the chagrin of fireworks opponents.)
There is a strong effort afoot to ban the private use of fireworks completely in Hawaii.
I grew up playing with fireworks on New Year's from a very young age. We were always taught respect and caution before being allowed the privilege.
I wish for my son to enjoy and to be able to continue this tradition to his son.
Failing that, I hope this pano helps him to remember what it was like at New Year's in Hawaii when he was five years old at the turn of the century and millennium, before fireworks were outlawed.
In this pano are my son, Alex, five years old, playing with sparklers, and wife, Jean. The pano was shot at the stroke of midnight, January 1, 2000, just seconds after I lit our string of 10,000 firecrackers and three fountains.
You cannot see it in the pano for the dark, but all the way up the street and around the corner, my neighbors are doing the same in their driveways. The sound file attached is of that string of firecrackers going off. You can hear me say "Whoo-hoo!" at the end. It is to give you a better feel for the moment.
The panorama was shot with an Olympus D340R digital camera on a Kaidan QP1A indexed head. It was stitched in Quicktime VR Authoring Studio. Audio was taped on a Sanyo tape recorder and digitized directly into the Mac. There was some problem with exposure from start to finish, with the fireworks burning out before I went totally around. Hence the exposure shifts seen in the pano.
Aloha,
Blaine Fergerstrom
ZZ-Type
zztype@alohatown.com
http://www.alohatown.com