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July 4th Independence Day: FIREWORKS!

 

Fireworks on the 4th of July!

Hello All!

It was Independence Day holiday here in the United States where we commemorate our Declaration of Independence of July 4,1776.  Usually people celebrate the day by spending time with family, barbecues, and of course launching fireworks!  Growing up we always look forward to this day as we got to blow stuff up.  Bottle rockets, Roman candles, M-60/M-100's, and those good 'ol Red Devil fireworks stands (anyone remember those worm things, that's gotta the one nobody wanted and was last thing to light up when you used up all the good stuff)! 

We have places which are subject to brush fires so over the years personal fireworks became prohibited in certain areas in the City of Angels.  There are public displays that are really impressive and people flock to places like the Hollywood Bowl, South Bay, Pasadena, or Montebello for their firework fix.   I stayed close to home to avoid all the crazy crowds and traffic.  From our vantage point high up in the hills, we have a nice view of the city of Los Angeles to watch the fireworks that were on display.  With the recent awesome night shots that fellow PuristS were taking I was once again inspired to shoot at night.  Let's start with some video (taken with my Nikon D800):

***For optimal quality playback, click settings for 1080p HD***


Things started around 7:00pm throughout the city but it was much more interesting when it got dark, the skies started to light up and with a bang!  Of the set of photographs I took, this one to my eyes was the most interesting, I like how the red wiggles contrast the green center flare:


Whipped out the Gitzo, RRS, and Arca Swiss Z1 and played around with different settings.  Some were shot with a 2 second expsorue others were shot with a longer exposure time.  I wish I had 2 tripods (one for a camcorder and one for my dslr) for shooting this as I wanted to capture both video and still shots.  I had to switch back and forth and it got a bit hectic.  Guess I need to buy more toys!  This shot was taken at f/11, 6seconds:


This one came out pretty colorful:


Timed this one so it didn't have the launching trail, it kinda resembles a flower, what do you think?


Caught one with a multiple explosions:


A patriotic bit of Red, White, and Blue firework!

This one had a neat effect with the light around the red firework:

As more and more fireworks ere set off, it got a bit cloudy from all the smoke...

Wish this exposed a little bit longer, you can see the purple firework about to appear in the back:

A trio splash of red:

This one makes me think of tropical colors...

Cool, my favorite color! 

Things started to got intense...

They usually shoot a flurry of fireworks at the end but they really didn't do much for the finale this time.  IMO, last year's firework show was much better as there was a bigger and longer show but still had fun watching this year's event.  Did anyone else shoot the fireworks?  What do you think of the ones I took?  As I am always looking to improve, comments and critiques are always welcomed.

Hope everyone had a great Independence Day and enjoy the rest of the week!

-MW






This message has been edited by DRMW on 2013-07-05 13:33:27