NY Harbor Fireworks...Again 5 Pics

For some reason we got a fireworks show tonight on the harbor. It sure is surprising when fireworks start going off outside your window.

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw2.jpg

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw3.jpg

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw4.jpg

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw7.jpg

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw8.jpg

I'm so jealous I missed it! Maybe it was a test run for Independence Day?

Nice catch!

Megan

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Originally Posted by Jakkar

For some reason we got a fireworks show tonight on the harbor. It sure is surprising when fireworks start going off outside your window.

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw2.jpg

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw3.jpg

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw4.jpg

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw7.jpg

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw8.jpg

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Nice work. I especially like the second one with the silhouetted tower and bridge lights in the background. Gorgeous color on the water.

These are pretty cool indeed. Evidently a nearby town is holding a display of its own tonight and I was going to come and ask for some advice on focal lengths and shutter speeds.

I'm going to be fairly close (maybe a mile or so away, an more or less right "under" them for perception's sake). I was thinking set up a tripod in a nearby parking lot with either my 60mm F2.8 or with my 80-200 F2.8 and just start shooting at around 1/2 a second and see what I get at the lower focal lengths.

I don't mind some blurring if it has the effect of the golden burst in your shot above, but otherwise I'd like to try and "freeze the blast" as much as I can.

Suggestions?

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Originally Posted by PuckJunkey

I don't mind some blurring if it has the effect of the golden burst in your shot above, but otherwise I'd like to try and "freeze the blast" as much as I can.

Suggestions?

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If you try to 'freeze the blast' too much you end up with something like the first pic. I usually use about 4 seconds to get more of the 'petals' as they move out from the center like in the second pic. I also do not use a wide open aperture to try to keep from burning out all the color.
If you want to try something different, try panning or rotating the camera during exposure. I have a few like that in the special events gallery.
http://gallery.photographyreview.com...rt=1&perpage=9

Holy cow... those are cool! I guess I might be limiting myself by not hand-holding, even though the exposure time is very long? I suppose it's just light (like carlights on those time-exposures at night you always see on TV)... so no detail is lost by a little hand shake. Hopefully the show will last long enough for me to find the best shutter speed range.

Thanks Chunk!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PuckJunkey

Holy cow... those are cool! I guess I might be limiting myself by not hand-holding, even though the exposure time is very long? I suppose it's just light (like carlights on those time-exposures at night you always see on TV)... so no detail is lost by a little hand shake. Hopefully the show will last long enough for me to find the best shutter speed range.

Thanks Chunk!

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Believe it or not, those were on a tripod ( I've finally perfected the shaky tripod shot). I left the adjustments loose so I could pan and rotate the head. here are some handheld (well leaning against a lightpost) from the year before.
Since you don't have a lot of choice about where the fireworks go off, don't zoom in too tightly. Some really nice shots got chopped off from too tight a zoom. Shoot loose and crop if needed.
You'll find some nice fireworks shots in the archives of the viewfinder and critique forums from last July if they can be found.

Impressive. Maybe I'll try both hand-held and tripod mounted. I have large Graf ball-head so swivelling it around should be pretty easy.

...thought I was going to be close enough and took my 17-35 to a nice open area (though there were some street lights nearby)... not even close. Should've gone with the 80-200 and probably a different location. Ah well, at least my dog isn't stressing now that I'm back. She hates the noise from fireworks.

New York City had its weekly fireworks show last night and since I have taken so many plain ones I tried something different as well.

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw20.jpg

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw21.jpg

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw22.jpg

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw23.jpg

http://www.vzavenue.net/~jakkar/fw24.jpg

The first one looks like a palm tree or weeping willow - or an ice cream cone - depending on my mood! lol

Nice shots! I want to take some this year with my nikon 4300 coolpix digital - there is a fireworks mode on it so that should be interesting to try.

That last one is really impressive, both composition-wise and expsosure-wise. Nice shot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jakkar

New York City had its weekly fireworks show last night and since I have taken so many plain ones I tried something different as well.

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I wouldn't call your other shots plain, they are quite spectacular. These new ones are terrific. How did you take the middle ones? Zooming during exposure?
Nice work.

I actually went from 200 to 70 during a 1.5 second exposure.