The 9 O’Clock Gun is a 12 pound muzzle-loaded naval cannon that is located in a pavilion in Stanley Park in Vancouver, and fires at 9:00pm every night.

The cannon itself was cast in Woolwich, England in 1816, and was brought to Stanley Park in 1894. It is automatically fired, and in the summer months, draws quite a crowd!

For a couple of weeks in May and August, there is just the right amount of light in the sky to capture the gun firing with the city lights beyond. For this shot, I jumped down off the seawall, which you can see to the right, and set up on the pebbles and seaweed below. The tide was still quite high, so I didn’t have much space to work with.

As well as the main cannon blast, you can also see a secondary blast coming out of the touch-hole at the rear of the cannon. Across the water you can see the Chevron fuel barge, lit up brightly in the centre of the image, Canada Place at the far left, and the heart of downtown Vancouver.