For the first time in years, I wanted to get some fireworks pictures. The fact that last night was a full moon also was irresistible.

I spent a few days before checking the tides, the moon locations, googling how to take fireworks pictures, setting up the cameras etc….. I wanted to be prepared.
I left home at 11pm to walk to the park adjacent to the Newport Arms. I’d scoped these locations a week or so before and knew that this would not be too crowded and would have a good view of the fireworks. A few test shots, a few adjustments and I was ready to go…..just needed to wait for midnight.

I had two approaches, one camera was a longer exposure to get the effect of the full moon lighting the scene and the other camera was to get the firework bursts only. Here are the test shots.

The clock turned 12 welcoming in 2010. Then the fireworks started……over there!!! I had assumed that the fireworks would go off on a barge in front of the Arms. Instead they were going off out of frame off to my left. Quickly moving the tripods to face in the rough direction, I had no time to check anything, so just started the timers going.

The long exposure worked ok, but as it was 60 seconds, the bursts get a little lost in the smoke and the over exposure.

Set-up : 5D MK2, 16-36 @ 16mm, f8, ISO 640 exposure 60 seconds – Release TC-80N3.

The shorter exposure worked ok too in the end, but I was too far from the fireworks to get anything really sharp.

Set-up : 1D MK IV, 15mm Fisheye, f8, ISO 100, 8 Seconds – Release TC-80N3.

All in all, the result was ok, but ti does pay to be prepared. Know your location and never assume anything.
There’s always next year…..