Happy 4th of July...

Fireworks are kind of a pain in the ass to shoot. The past couple of years I've shot them I didn't get much I was too thrilled with. Normally when I shoot fireworks I go with a long exposure shot on a tripod. This allows me to let in a lot of light and get multiple explosions in the air at once. Last night I started out the same, but it wasn't working. I was getting some decent fireworks shots but they were shooting so many fireworks into the air I didn't need the long exposure, it was just over exposing and the colors were just making everything white. Plus, the kids sitting on top of the truck I was trying to frame up weren't showing up. So I scrapped everything and went hand held and did a quick flash set up with a pocket wizard to set it off. I already had the pocket wizard on the camera to set it off on the tripod, so I just plugged the other one into the flash.

I stuck with a slow shutter since the pop of the strobe would keep the kid sharp, I wasn't too concerned about camera shake on the fireworks since it wasn't too bog of a deal. I did actually get one nice shot that I liked from the long exposures (above), but it just wasn't what I was looking for. However, my favorite shot was the top one. It had a lot of stuff going on that worked out well. All the explosions in the air coupled with the reflections on the cars and the kid watching all worked out really well. What made the photo was something I didn't even notice until I got back to the office, the little kid sitting inside the truck because he was afraid of the fireworks.