Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Bada Bing, Bada BOOM!

Genesis

I never miss fireworks if I can help it. Love the ooooh. Adore the ahhhh. Shiny. I look forward to the July 4 shows every year. Every year I take photos. Every year they sucked. Until now.

Thanks to this New York Institute of Photography article: How to Photograph Fireworks, this year's photos did not suck. Not winning any prizes yet, but a vast improvement over the overexposed, colorless blobs of days gone by.

Between that article and the camera's instruction manual I plucked up the nerve to shoot in manual mode for the first time. Chose my own settings and everything. Even discovered the BULB setting. (It lets you hold open the shutter for as long as you like.)Who new that was in there?

I maybe shouldn't have used the long lens. It made it difficult or impossible to get everything into the frame. On the other hand, I did get some nicely detailed close-up shots, so what the hey. (And yes, I left the camera bag and lens at home. What with the cooler, the lawn chairs, the tripod, bug spray, jackets ... don't start with me.)

There are fireworks all over the place in the summer, from amusement parks to baseball games, so I thought I'd pass along that link. It certainly helped me. Enjoy.

P.S. Here's the set so far on Flickr: Fireworks. Please enlarge them to see them at their best, OK?

Fireflower

6 comments:

Daryl said...

Oh my these are awesome .. I watched from indoors . BIG screen TV w/AC vs huge crowds w/humidity .. I need to read the tutorial ... and get a longer lens and one of these days I might even get out and get me some real shots not doctored Queen Anne's Lace ...

Rambling Woods said...

Wow...I think it's great...I sat and watched the fireflies on the 4th..

MyMaracas said...

LOL Daryl ... I coulda just photoshopped Queen Anne's Lace. I didn't even think of that.

Michelle, we have lots of those, too, but I haven't figured out how to get a decent photo of them.

Scott Law said...

Successful indeed. There are very nice!

MyMaracas said...

Thanks, Scott!

Tatjana Parkacheva said...

Great photos.
BRAVO!!!