Fireworks, Friends, and Photos!
Jul. 6th, 2014 10:20 pmOn the fourth, I went with
posicat and folks to watch the Grayslake fireworks display. It was a little weird not doing something with my family, since that's been the usual thing for years and years. But they weren't doing anything special for the day, and I wanted to get together with friends and see the show from what Posi said was a great position. It was; we were right up against the fence to keep people away from the launching area, and the shells were going off essentially right overhead. I was completely wrong in the skepticism I expressed to Posi about his assurance that my 10-22 lens would not be too wide. I'm glad I had it!
I shot this with a four second exposure at f/20, and panned the camera vertically as the explosion progressed.

More behind the cut.

This one looks like a great big underwater plant to me.

The ones with this curtain effect were so neat!

Some of them filled the entire sky, we were so close.

Long exposures with small apertures let me superimpose multiple explosions into a frame. I was shooting in manual mode and adjusting various settings on the fly. The earlier shots were largely too dim, but I started getting in the groove later on. This one is 6 seconds at f17, but all of these shots vary as I tried to get different effects.

In this one, a tree is interposed between my lens and some of the fireworks. It makes for an effect I really like. I might try to do some more of that more intentionally next year.

One last one that shows our proximity to the launching pad.
By the way, I posted these entirely without editing. They're all straight out of camera. This is a big leap for me, but man does it save some time! *laughs*
I hope you enjoyed them! There are more in my Flickr photostream. Thanks Posi, both for inviting me along, and for a fun evening with friends and food!
I shot this with a four second exposure at f/20, and panned the camera vertically as the explosion progressed.

More behind the cut.

This one looks like a great big underwater plant to me.

The ones with this curtain effect were so neat!

Some of them filled the entire sky, we were so close.

Long exposures with small apertures let me superimpose multiple explosions into a frame. I was shooting in manual mode and adjusting various settings on the fly. The earlier shots were largely too dim, but I started getting in the groove later on. This one is 6 seconds at f17, but all of these shots vary as I tried to get different effects.

In this one, a tree is interposed between my lens and some of the fireworks. It makes for an effect I really like. I might try to do some more of that more intentionally next year.

One last one that shows our proximity to the launching pad.
By the way, I posted these entirely without editing. They're all straight out of camera. This is a big leap for me, but man does it save some time! *laughs*
I hope you enjoyed them! There are more in my Flickr photostream. Thanks Posi, both for inviting me along, and for a fun evening with friends and food!