Johnsenclan

Syracuse Days is the yearly celebration that for some reason takes place right before the 4th of July.  We missed it this year to go to a family reunion, but at the last minute I decided to try and take some pictures of fireworks to see how they’d turn out.

I kept the aperture between 8 and 13, then set the camera to bulb mode. Then I just kept the shutter open until I thought I’d captured enough to fill the frame. It’s really hard to tell what’s going to show up and look good.  The best shots with the most color and dark blacks were around 18-20 seconds.  More than that and everything started to turn a yellowish-gray.

On this one I had Sidney stand in front of the camera and watch while the various blasts went off around her.  I was hoping to frame her silhouette with fireworks, but I think I kept the shutter open a little too long and so I got a little too much light on her.  This would probably work better during a finale when there are more blasts in the sky ot once, then I wouldn’t have to leave the shutter open as long.

The big finale.  It was good practice for the fourth, I’ll try some other ideas then.

Tags: fireworks, photos, shutter, Sister, syracuse