Fireworks Anyone?

Hey all. Gearing up for the extended Independence Weekend. Around here the local fire department puts on a show over the water on the 3rd so we can all stay home and be sane on the 4th. Some years I watch from our dock, some years I take photos.

Anyone with fireworks photos, lets post 'em up!

22199

Nice shot. I've never tried to take fireworks photos before.

Thanks! Above was with my digital SLR, but have done similar with film. Roughly use F11 - F16 and use a manual shutter duration ("bulb" if you have it) and just hold the shutter open to get a few "pops". A wired or remote shutter switch is helpful. I usually set the camera to Manual Focus and just set it to infinity. Photo above was F11 for 16 seconds. It was pitch black out, but the long exposure helped get the very low lit sky to come thru. Fireworks are much easier with DSLRs (IMHO) as you can get immediate feedback on the exposure duration. With film it was always just a guess. Get real creative and take your external flash in hand and walk around "painting" the foreground during the exposure...

For most shots, use a tripod, but you can get some interesting results handholding a long exposure also...

22204

Very cool! And thanks for the technical info/tips!

These were taken at Old Orchard Beach, ME a week ago. They do a show on the beach every Thursday night. They did a better show at their weekly show than Bangor did on July 4. A really good show!

http://image2.frappr.com/pix2/i/20070802/1/8/f/18ffbcf8225cd3c4a31e67c59b78615b0_large.jpg

http://image1.frappr.com/pix1/i/20070802/0/2/d/02d9122cae64b5f19472a1f798211d070_large.jpg

http://image1.frappr.com/pix1/i/20070802/4/f/a/4fa6ff03350b186d718de351d4c9d9000_large.jpg

http://image2.frappr.com/pix2/i/20070802/2/5/5/255e634efc255d2b2ff4b676187df4f40_large.jpg

here are a couple from the nascar race at pir

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb292/sedonaaz/IMG_4397.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb292/sedonaaz/IMG_4398.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb292/sedonaaz/IMG_4403.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb292/sedonaaz/IMG_4400.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb292/sedonaaz/IMG_4399.jpg

Bump...

Ok - to tie this in with my Ridgeline, I had my boys for the 4th this year and we drove over to the local K-Mart parking lot across the street from the Union County Fairgrounds where they fire off the fireworks from. Boys and I climbed in the back of the Ridge, where I set up the tripod, camera, and remote release. Played with both my 24-70 and 70-200 lenses (ultimately, used the 70-200 lens). Set the ISO to 400, shutter to "bulb" and used f/8.

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1288/722581214_354cf67cef.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1418/721722035_b27525912e.jpg

from my Flickr Account - the rest can be seen here. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/xesto/sets/72157600653040456/)