Fireworks

Before July is over, I’m posting a few of my favorite fireworks photos from this year.  I went to Beech Grove on the 3rd, then Cicero on the 4th.  The photo above took first place in our monthly photo club competition for July.  Live in Central Indiana?  Check out our club website.

Want some tips for your fireworks shots?  Read on.

1.  ALWAYS use a tripod!  If you don’t have a tripod – then find something to support your camera as it points to the sky.  I had to do use boulders and smaller rocks at a waterfall in Tennessee.  We hiked about 300 feet down to the bottom – no tripod – so I had to improvise.

2.  Manual exposure.  I vary my exposures every minute or so.  My shutter usually ranges from 2 seconds to 10 seconds.  My f/stop usually ranges from f/8 to f/14.  Preferred ISO is 100, although some of these were shot at ISO 250.

3.  If you want just the explosions, sometimes you can hear them shoot and know it’s time to open the shutter.  If you want the tails, it’s a bit tougher!  The pyro-experts don’t always have consistent timing and sometimes there are multiple bursts.  Luck can play into it, too.  Sometimes you open too soon, other times too late.  But they are almost always interesting shots.

4.  If you have it – use a remote.  I don’t have one for my current camera, so I press the shutter as gently as possible to avoid camera shake.  I could do a 2-second shutter delay – but those two seconds could lose the shot.

The shots that show the burst only or show tree silhouettes at the bottom are from Beech Grove, the ones with the tails and are on the water are from Cicero.  I had hoped for better reflections, but the barge was too close to shore to get them.   It was so close to shore that by the end of the night, we were getting pieces of ash falling on us.

Advertisement