My family and I had a wonderful 4th of July and hope you did too! We didn't travel far to see Fireworks - in fact, there was a show just down the street, so armed with my tripod and camera I set off to take some photographs.
A few people have asked me how to photograph fireworks. The main thing to keep in mind is that you will want a slow shutter speed (my exposures were 2-5 seconds) to catch the light trails. And if you have a slow shutter speed, you'll need a tripod or you'll just end up with a blurry mess.
Find a good location with something interesting in the foreground or background. I didn't follow this advice myself, actually, but ideally there would be a pond in the foreground, or monuments or a skyline or something to balance the fireworks in the sky. If you can't find anything interesting, then zoom your lens so that the fireworks fill the frame of your camera.
Set up your tripod and camera. Do not use your flash. Ideally you'd have a wireless trigger for your camera to avoid any camera shake whatsoever. My trigger had dead batteries, so you can manage without a wireless trigger if you are careful to gently squeeze the shutter button rather than decisively press it.
Experiment with your camera. Try longer and slower shutter speeds. Try zooming your lens during an exposure, like I did here:
. Take lots of photos and have fun!
