Stratford Fireworks

Fireworks are one of my favorite subjects to photograph. With long exposures, you can create some surreal effects. I play around with my settings, but I find that 1-2 second exposures come out the best, with the ISO as low as your camera can go and the f stop between 16-22. Focus on one burst then switch your camera to manual focus. I like to play with zooming in and out while the shutter is open. This year, I also played around with HDR photos. The camera takes three pictures and combines the results into a single picture. While it created some strange artifacting in a few of the shots, it really made the colors pop.

 

Throwback Thursday

Hope everyone made it through the Fourth of July safely.

Back in 2005, my friends used to jump over fireworks. Xian claimed that the sulfur didn't burn, yet his arm and leg hair were always mysteriously singed on the fifth of July.

Throwback Thursdays

I love night photography almost as much as I love concert photography. It's so much fun to be able to create an image that you wouldn't see in normal life. Painting with gels, sparklers, flash lights and my personal favorite, fireworks.

The above image is from 2005, from the Stratford Fireworks Display. When I shoot fireworks, I bring my tripod and cable release. I use a low ISO to be able to have a longer shutter speed. Watch a few fireworks to see the general position in the sky and focus on a burst. Switch the focus to manual and fire away. This was shot at f11, high depth of field, and is a 3 second exposure with my 70-200 lens. I started fully zoomed in and slowly during the exposure, zoomed back out. It creates the three dimensional light trails. You get the opposite effect if you zoom in while the shutter is open.

Play, experiment and above all else, have fun.

For anyone that just found their way over to this blog thanks to Matt Paxton's shout out, here's a link to the post he was talking about. Thanks, Matt!