Happy Fourth of July

With the majority of the area going up in flames and the fear of what hasn't burned yet being ready to burn many of the towns around the area cancelled their fireworks this year. However, a few places did keep their shows, mostly the few places that can shoot off the fireworks over a lake... something else that's drying up. So, Clyde was still having their show, in fact they were having two, one on Friday and one on Saturday. Our plan was to run the photos on Sunday, so I really needed to shoot the show on Friday night since our Saturday night deadlines are about 10 minutes before the show would actually start. When I got their and set up I figured I had a pretty decent spot. Then when the fireworks actually started I found out I was way too far back I ended up running with my tripod and cameras up to a few people who were watching from a little bit closer rock. When the finale started I still hadn't gotten a shot I liked, I began to panic a little and started shooting a lot, going with long exposures on my camera on the tripod and wide angle lens, my other camera I had my 70-200mm lens on and went filling up the frame with the fireworks and noticed the reflection of the lake in the shot. As I was leaving I wasn't sure if I had a shot or not, so when I got back tot he office and was looking at what I had it was starting to be a little disappointing, then I saw the above shot, and what made it for me was seeing the people's silhouettes in the bottom left of the frame. A big sigh of relief, I had my shot and luckily it was about the only shot I really liked. But, it worked out well as the main photo on the front page, though it probably could've run a little bigger.

Happy (Really Late) 4th...

I've shot fireworks the last couple of years at the Tye fireworks display and some years have been better than others. The first year I went out their was pretty miserable since I think I parked in a swamp and gotten eaten alive by mosquitoes. Last year turned out pretty cool. This years wasn't so great, it was rainy and nasty out and honestly I was kind of scared it may be canceled. The other pain in the ass was we had the bright idea to shoot this live this year for the next day's paper. In the past this fireworks show was always done on July 3, and allowed for us to add it into our fourth coverage. But, since the fourth was on Saturday this year they did the celebration on the fourth. The problem was with the rain it backed everything up there were some difficulties so the show started 20 minutes late. And my deadline was 10 minutes later. I basically had enough time to shot the beginning of the show run to my car and send pix from my laptop. I shot from the park where the fireworks were being shot, in the past I walked up and down the highway finding people watching from in and on their cars. I think it made better photos but took more time. Since I was on a tight schedule I stuck close. Given the constraints I had I'm happy with what I got but would have like more time to look for something better.