The grand finale of our Aquatennial celebration, the great uuh … ahh. At least that’s what they used to call it. Our location wasn’t the best for photos (skyline in background for example), but it was convenient and not to crowded. Could have processed out some of the smoke, but that’s part of the setting.

Tara Litwinchuk, the 2009 Aquatennial Queen of Lakes, in front of Bartley’s Camaro. For those not familiar the Aquatennial, it’s an annual festival 10 days long with concerts, beach events, parades, and is often referred to as the best days of summer, for Minnesota anyway. Much going on in our City during this time of year, given the relative shortness of our summer.

The Queen, Princesses, Commodore, Captain, and other parade participants where hanging out in this area waiting for the Torch Light Parade to start, eventually to lead the parade in the classic cars you see scattered around.

Tara was very gracious and pleasant, able to carry a conversation with anyone. I guess that’s one of the attributes a queen must have. There was a lot of fun chit chat among the contestants, hugging, and few tears too. For the Queen, the Princesses, and runner ups this week is the end of a year of appearances and contests, culminating in the selection of the Queen. After this week it starts all over with the new contestants. Good look Tara and all.

These didn’t turn out as I had hoped. For one thing the launching point appears to not have been from the 3rd Avenue bridge, putting all the fireworks in front of a brightly light building, and the lack of any breeze caused the smoke to hang around forever. I also used in-camera noise reduction, which essentially disables the camera for the same amount of time after each shot as the shot was long in the first place. Next time I’m going to pluck myself down on the Stone Arch bridge early evening and sweat in the sun with the rest of them, and have some fun.