My first fireworks pictures. All taken with Pentax 10-17mm FE on K10D with tripod and cable release. C&C welcome, but mostly just for fun

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the finale
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and the neighbor's finale in the lower right :P

[kubel]

Nice shots.

I took a few that some folks at our church fired off. It's my second attempt at fireworks (first attempt I didn't have my tripod with me so I couldn't do long exposures). Perhaps you all can suggest a technique, but once I heard or saw the mortar being fired, I pressed and held until it exploded, and released at the point where the sparks are just starting to be overtaken by gravity.

K100D Super, Pentax 18-250mm, Bulb exposure mode, Cable release, Tripod

The first two were of the kids running around with sparklers. I was just setting up my camera and it wasn't quite dark enough then to snap some really cool long exposure shots, but I got what I could.

Two difficult problems I faced:

1) Focus (hard to focus on something that only appears for a few seconds).
2) Location (hard to know where they will explode).
3) Dang hot pixels.

[dgsullivan]

This is what I did...

- camera on the tripod, portrait style, angled up
- pre-focused a smidgen before ∞
- between ƒ/8 and ƒ/13
- 'Bulb' mode
- cable remote, lawn chair, and a cold beer

When I saw them light something big I'd click the remote and after it started to drift away I'd let go.

I was also using a FE, so the area of effect was not an issue.

Although, we have a regular event and I knew where/what they were shooting off before I set up.

[cupic]

The cold beer is the Most important detail that nobody can afford to forget


Nice catch


cheers