As I patiently wait for flexcolor to process twenty-seven-gajillion raw files into digital negatives (I use a dual-redundancy system, probably a pilot hangup) of the cutest miniature sumo wrestler ever, I figured I could tax the ole processor just a bit more for some small jpegs of fireworks. I looked at a few fireworks shots online today of fireworks that I think were from Laredo, TX or just across the border, which were magnificent displays of pyrotechnics. After seeing those shots it made me appreciate the Mississippi quality of the above shot a bit more; probably not the most impressive display of fireworks to be found in the metro area, but it has the right feeling.
The 7th in the series is my most favorite of the explosions.
What were your settings on this? I tried to take some fireworks and forgot that my camera doesn’t like focusing that far away when it can’t tell what its looking at so most of mine didn’t come out. But mine were much redder than yours; just wondering if it was the pyrotechnics themselves or how you took them.
I shot them within the ranges of f4-f8 and from 4 to 15 seconds at ISO 50. I based my white balance off the entergy sign and tweaked it a little by hand to make the sky a little more neutral (looked sorta indigo when I treated the entergy sign as pure white). I don’t have auto-focus . . . so they were all shot at infinity, and naturally they were on a tripod, and for most of them I remembered to lock the mirror up before I fired the shutter with a cable release.
I’m not sure about this, but I think that I may have lost a little color in the longer exposures, they seem to look more like “white” sparks than the shorter exposures.
I found it funny how similar all of these fireworks look once the exposure is long enough.
I should show you the photos I took of the fireworks in the Magic Kingdom. That show is amazing and very different from the style done for 4th celebrations.
post em!
They aren’t on my laptop. It’ll have to wait until I get back to Tampa. But a couple are on Flickr. I’ll put them up shortly.