You may have caught my post on how to get the best fireworks photos that I posted just before the Independence Day holiday. I wonder if any of you took any fireworks photos? Maybe some of the techniques I posted helped? If you’d like to share your firework photos from the past holiday, I’d love to post them!
I meant to share these few snaps with you earlier, but things got a little busy. Anyway, first of all, I don’t consider these to be good fireworks photos. In fact, I broke the first cardinal rule of not using a tripod and so this is an example of “what not to do”. I also didn’t use my DSLR, only my smaller digital camera. These were back alley “unofficial” fireworks that I happened across – not some grand show put on by any municipality, so let’s just say, a tripod may have drawn too much attention and besides that, I would have made myself a big target to get mugged. haha…
These were taken handheld with my Panasonic Lumix GF-2 using the night mode, ISO 100, with a fixed 14mm lens. Using this setting the camera holds the shutter open for about 4 to 6 seconds, so without a tripod you can see how much my camera moved due to normal handheld shake. I tried my best to brace myself by leaning on a wall with my elbows tight against my body, but it’s still no substitute for a tripod.
Even though they are not technically good firework photos, I do think they have an interesting quality to them so I thought I’d share. Also, if you read my fireworks post, you may recall my promise to myself (and to you) that I would learn to take beautiful firework photos with those lovely clean light trails before year’s end, so I figured I’d share the work in progress on my way to that goal! Anyone can take better fireworks photos with practice and learning the right techniques. More on my fireworks journey to come!
