The local 4th of July fireworks show here was Saturday night (the 3rd). The fireworks are launched from a beach about 300 yards from where we're staying. That beach is downhill from us, so the fireworks go off just barely above eye level when we're sitting on the deck — nothing like front row seats for a fireworks show!

This show was in a fairly rural area, so the background behind the shots was essentially barren. No high rise buildings, no street lights, only the occasional tree line showing up during the really low altitude bursts.

The cool thing about fireworks without backgrounds is that they can be used to augment other photos without having to hassle with removing backgrounds from the fireworks themselves.

Here are a few of my favorites from the show a few hours ago:

1) A red, white, and blue burst to kick things off right:






2) A lollipop so you have a snack during the show:





3) A big red flower for the one you love (and it's not even valentine's day yet):






4) This shot's not big enough for both of us:






5) A splash of color:






6) Honest, I was using a tripod officer!






7) Two for the price of one:






8) Warp Factor 5, Mr. Sulu - get us to the finale quickly:






9) Big closing number:






10) An encore shot because you've been such a good audience:





I took about 170 shots during the show and was surprised how many came out usable (other than the complete lack of interesting backgrounds).

#10 is my favorite by far!

Killer shots! These are the type of shots that it's impossible not to like. Good job.

I've enjoyed shooting fireworks myself the past couple nights. First time but it sure is fun going through the results!

Thanks for the kinds words. I wish I had another fireworks show to shoot tonight - I had a blast shooting last night (no pun intended).

Wow! great job I tried my hand at shooting fireworks last night you did a great job!

Thanks for the positive feedback.

Are you planning to post any of your shots? It's cool seeing the different fireworks from different areas.

Wow like them a lot. That last one is truly awesome

WOW. those were amazing

What a group of winners! Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

Originally Posted by DsrtVW Wow like them a lot. That last one is truly awesome

Thanks! That one is my favorite. It, and #8, were caused by zooming in while the shutter was being held open. I got lucky on the colors popping at the time I was zooming.

I only tried zooming-while-shooting on a few shots since I wasn't sure how it would work out. For those two, I got very very luck.

Originally Posted by lilirishangel WOW. those were amazing

I had a blast playing with the camera during the show. The best part is that I was still able to watch the show. I set the camera up in advance and just kept hitting/releasing the remote shutter button as shells were launched.

How long to keep it open was a bit of guesswork. You can capture just a single burst, or keep it open to let several pile up together. Some of the double bursts I caught were actually two shells going off together, but most are consecutive shell bursts.

I had to guess as the initial framing/zooming, then fine tune it slightly once the show started. Some went out of frame, but enough were in-frame that it wasn't worth trying to chase them all over. Much easier to reframe/crop afterwards as long as the initial zoom was enough to have good detail.

I'm looking forward to getting a chance to shoot fireworks again!

Thanks for the feedback.

Originally Posted by Elaine What a group of winners! Beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for checking them out (and especially for chiming in). They were a lot of fun to shoot. I ended up with almost 175 shots which really surprised me. I didn't think the show was nearly long enough for that many shots.

Interesting perspective on #8. I'm not sure how that happened. A great series over all.

OK ... I just read the response right above mine so now I know how it happened. I love that shot! Nice work!.

Originally Posted by chuckinsocal Interesting perspective on #8. I'm not sure how that happened. A great series over all. OK ... I just read the response right above mine so now I know how it happened. I love that shot! Nice work!.

Thanks!

#8 was also cropped afterwards to bring up detail. I just checked the original RAW file and that shot was all in the lower left quadrant (reaching almost to the center of the frame). Things streaming towards the lens ended up stretched and things streaming away from the lens ended up with their paths compressed. When I was processing that shot, it reminded me of the special effects used when spacecraft accelerate to light speed.

I have another warped shot in my gallery where only some of the bursts were affected. In that one, the bursts that weren't affected happened after I zoomed (the shutter was kept open after the zooming to catch additional bursts). It's weird to look at those and ponder why some bursts are warped and some aren't.

Originally Posted by Thwack Thanks! #8 was also cropped afterwards to bring up detail. I just checked the original RAW file and that shot was all in the lower left quadrant (reaching almost to the center of the frame). Things streaming towards the lens ended up stretched and things streaming away from the lens ended up with their paths compressed. When I was processing that shot, it reminded me of the special effects used when spacecraft accelerate to light speed. I have another warped shot in my gallery where only some of the bursts were affected. In that one, the bursts that weren't affected happened after I zoomed (the shutter was kept open after the zooming to catch additional bursts). It's weird to look at those and ponder why some bursts are warped and some aren't.

I like that effect too. Pretty cool! I'm surprised though that they aren't squiggly from you bumping camera when you zoomed.

Originally Posted by ImageX Photography I like that effect too. Pretty cool! I'm surprised though that they aren't squiggly from you bumping camera when you zoomed.

There is a little bit of squiggle from my hand on the lens. You have to look close to see it because there are so many lines going everywhere that's it's easy to not notice.

Look right where the lines suddenly change direction - that's where the zooming either started or stopped and the effect of my hand on the lens shows up slightly.

Since I was so close to the launch spot, I was shooting with my 16-85 lens and was zoomed out initially to about 20-ish mm. So, the slight bumping of a short lens doesn't show as much as it would if I were zoomed all the way with my big lens (which goes to 300mm).

Being close hides all sorts of rookie mistakes.

I definitely want to play with that effect more next time (including finding some way to be gentler when doing it - I don't think I can adjust the zoom on my D90 via tethered shooting so I may have to put my hand on the lens BEFORE opening the shutter and leave it on the lens until after I close the shutter).

I don't normally get excited about fireworks photos, but these are exceptional.

Sam

Originally Posted by Sam I don't normally get excited about fireworks photos, but these are exceptional. Sam

Thank you!!

I usually prefer some background for context and scale, but these are so crisp and well exposed that I'll make an exception . Seriously great color and no smoke clouding the air. Very well done.

Beautiful captures

Originally Posted by Richard I usually prefer some background for context and scale, but these are so crisp and well exposed that I'll make an exception . Seriously great color and no smoke clouding the air. Very well done.

Thanks! I would've loved to have had some cool background content though I'm also happy about how black the background ended up being (made it possible to hold the shutter open for long periods of time without having to cover the lens with black material between bursts to avoid blowing out the background).

Thinking about it (for next year), I know a couple other places I could shoot from that are level with the launch spot (instead of slightly above it). But, the backgrounds I'd end up with aren't likely to be interesting (just houses and trees, maybe a few small boats).

I'll have to find another fireworks show to shoot in order to get some decent backgrounds…