C&C July 4th fireworks

[TucsonTRD]

I know, July 4th fireworks photos, how original. But I always thought it was amazing seeing good photos of fireworks online and I was really looking forward to taking some photos Sunday night.


On July 2nd, I scouted a couple different locations for my city's fireworks and had a good plan. But then, almost as expected, the evening of the fourth we (wife and I) decided to stay on our side of town and setup for the show a nearby resort was going to be doing. So I did a quick scouting trip of advantageous parking lots and we setup for the fireworks. I took my 17-55 (planned on using this one) and my 70-200 f/4 (just in case). After my first capture, I immediately realized I needed the 70-200 so I made the swap. I made a few focal length tweaks, but I was pretty much set near 135mm (on my 50D), so we were a little further away than I would have liked. It was harder than I expected to check focus on the lcd, even zooming, so I was pretty worried about that. I think they turned out pretty good though.


I truly welcome any criticism or suggestions for improvement. These are my four favorite at this point (I have about 100 good/decent photos)


EXIF: 131-145mm, bulb shutter (usually 2-4 seconds), iso100, f/9, cable release


#1)


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#2)


[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.38.96/JUL04_2D00_205106web.jpg[/img]


#3)


[img]/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.38.96/JUL04_2D00_205345web.jpg[/img]


#4)


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Thanks for looking!!!


Braden

[ddt0725]

Braden -

These are my four favorite at this point

I don't know man!? Hmmm....oh hell, does it get any better than this!? These are awesome! IMO these are perfect in every respect![Y]

I was planning on going to ours and taking photos of fireworks for the first time...but at the last miniute, ended up having to stay home & babysitting 3 terrified pooches ...gotta love my neighbors and their firecrackers going off for 6 hours straight, 3 nights in a row! [:@]

Denise

[TucsonTRD]

Thanks Denise! And sorry to hear of the joys your neighbors gave you over the holiday.

[MrGreenBug]

Nice set of fireworks photos. []

[mikehillman89]

So clear Braden! I salute you! How did you manage to get such clean shots??? Mine all had cloud residue left over from the previous ones.

[Dave Johnston]

I love the blue in that third image. Seriously, great stuff, Braden. Makes me wish I had gone out to a local display!





Cheers,





Dave.

[Flaming]

Love the shots. I hadn't even thought of taking pictures of fireworks over the weekend. Oh well my town did them on the night of the third and I was out of town anyway.


I really love them. The only suggestion I have is you might crop to remove some dead space; specifically on the first one. Still all are really well shot!


Samuel

[TucsonTRD]

Thanks for all the positive comments everyone!! I was definitely worried about residual smoke in the air from all the fireworks, but I rarely saw any with my own eyes and none of it seems to have been picked up in the photos. I don't remember very much, if any wind. So I don't why the sky was clearing so quickly. Maybe they were using smokeless powder??


I agree Dave, the photos of the blue fireworks were some of my favorite.


Thanks for the suggestion Dave. I'll re-evaluate my cropping for some of the photos. I just did a quick crop-job on all of them. Some of them I intentionally left a little more room to see how that would affect the photo.


Braden