Fireworks!

[gabew]

Well of course it was the 4th of July yesterday and so last night the skies were filled with bright lights and big booms. I got my first tripod just last week so I had been doing a lot with longer exposures and having tons of fun. Anyway what do you get when you combine a dslr, a tripod, and fireworks? Tons of cool photos!! :dance: As always comments feedback and critique welcomed and feel free to post some photos of your own! Enjoy!

http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g353/chill_reefs_55/IMG_0047.jpg

http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g353/chill_reefs_55/IMG_0049.jpg

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[gabew]

http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g353/chill_reefs_55/IMG_0139.jpg

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[gabew]

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[408Reefer]

Awesome pics. I took some as well did not come out as nice. It seem like there was a ton of left over smoke that made my pics look bad. oh well

[Brett9917]

Unlike hunting, stand down wind when taking pics of fire works, or just watching them in general lol.

The show I was going to go to only lasted like 10 minutes and we couldn't get to a good spot to shoot them. Got one pic that I will post later, as well ones we did at out house... Those are only fountains though.

[StephLionfish]

I really like pictures #1, #4, and #5 in the second post. And the purple one in the first post and.....well, you get the point- they are awesome!
I can't seem to master the art of firework shots.

[swjim]

Nice shots! I really like #4 in the first post.

Here are a few of mine from Monday.

#1 This one was a 30 second exposure, the ghosting at the bottom was caused by movement of the bridge I was set up on as cars drove on it.
http://www.jimpr4.com/photos/i-fGPf9St/1/XL/i-fGPf9St-XL.jpg

#2
http://www.jimpr4.com/photos/i-CFkCSSS/1/XL/i-CFkCSSS-XL.jpg

#3
http://www.jimpr4.com/photos/i-N3vC7jL/1/XL/i-N3vC7jL-XL.jpg

#4
http://www.jimpr4.com/photos/i-HZvgCtG/1/XL/i-HZvgCtG-XL.jpg

#5
http://www.jimpr4.com/photos/i-3nHx533/1/XL/i-3nHx533-XL.jpg

#6
http://www.jimpr4.com/photos/i-NPbZhQB/1/XL/i-NPbZhQB-XL.jpg

#7
http://www.jimpr4.com/photos/i-NBszmNg/1/XL/i-NBszmNg-XL.jpg

#8 OK, not a fireworks shot but I took it when setting up. This is a 30 second exposure of some kids fighting with their light sabers. :)
http://www.jimpr4.com/photos/i-zMVcB2r/3/XL/i-zMVcB2r-XL.jpg

[Brett9917]

Like I said in my earlier post, the show was much shorter than anticipated, so I was still finding my spot when the finale went off, so I couldn't even get it framed right. I liked the way it turned out though...

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5272/5909084722_d0987feb8a_z.jpg

And here is fountain that we set off in our driveway. PA Law, none that can go up in the air...

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6046/5908528307_f387467963_z.jpg

[gabew]

Thanks for the kind comments and great photos everyone! It took a while to get the exposures right. Where we were the show was pretty good so I had plenty of time to get it right. The hardest part was actually focusing on things you could only see for a second! For the most part I was using a shutter speed of 1-3 seconds otherwise I would get way to many fireworks in the shot and it wouldn't look good. I tired clicking the shutter when I saw one going up and it would close by the time it was done. Still I took around 300 photos to get these good ones!

[Brett9917]

For the focusing, switch it to manual focus and focus to infinity.

[gabew]

Thats what I did and I think I got it pretty good for the most part. There are only a few where you can see it is out of focus.

[albano]

Love those 'feather dusters'
http://i1097.photobucket.com/albums/g353/chill_reefs_55/IMG_0133.jpg