It's a blast.
Valletta gun battery signalling 16:00 over the Grand Harbour - time for afternoon tea.
This was a challenging shot to take, given the afternoon sun and the shadows. I wanted to make sure I could get all of the ejecta in the shot, the flash of the gun, the smoke at the rear of the gun and the soldier pulling the firing cord. The Sony GMII 70-200mm f2.8 is a great lens and allowed me to capture all the action. But the real challenge was in post processing. LrC was great in allowing me to mask the three components of the ejecta separately, and the cannon, the soldier, the surrounding waters of the harbour and the battlements, all separately.
It was a challenging post-processing job (all done in LrC) but I think it came out reasonably well.
Sony A7iv + Sony 70-200mm f2.8 GM II
EXIF: ISO100, f/9, 1/50 s, @70mm.