4th of July Fireworks

Last night we went over to a friend’s house to watch some fireworks. (Thanks Jen and James!) We were completely surprised by the quality/quantity of explosives we were about to witness. The first clue was that they had all the fireworks taped down to plywood sheets. That way, when one was launched it wouldn’t dislodge any of the others. Oh, and one more thing, did I mention there were several plywood sheets?

Ok, so fireworks right? I had to bring my camera and a tripod. I decided that you see a gazillion photos of beautiful fireworks photos and they all tend to look alike. So I positioned by chair close to the launching area (as close as I dared. 🙂 ) so I could shoot up directly at the fireworks. I also chose a relatively long lens (70-200 2.8 IS) considering my proxity to the explosions. That way I got a closeup of what was going on. I was so close that debris from the fireworks was raining down on me after each launch. It took about 15-20 minutes of continuous fireworks to exhaust all the explosives. It was awesome. Anyway here are some shots.

James and the guys setting up. Lit mostly by flashlight, ISO 12,800.

 There is a true beauty to the chaos and violence in these explosions. Kinda like mini-big-bangs. 🙂

Anyway, that’s it for now. Thanks for reading and I hope everyone is having happy Independence Day!!!

-Ken