Shooting fireworks

shooting fireworks saw a fireworks show last night near my home. Naturally I could not resist bringing a tripod and camera to "possibly" catch a good fireworks shot. As it turned out, we were not close enough to the show to get good wide shots, so I was forced to get in tight with a zoom lens to avoid the street lights, and parking lights in the foreground.

Here is what the foreground looked like: _MG_9187
By the way, the correct way to shoot these is shoot wide open ( I used iso 100) and vary the shutter speed (start at about 2 seconds or so). The shutter speed will not effect the intensity, but it will effect the length of the streams. The aperture will effect the brightness. You should try wide open first, then close down if necessary. Focusing is very tricky in the dark. I would suggest getting there when it is still slightly light and focus on the launch area, and use that same focus to shoot the fireworks. Don’t forget to disable autofocus, shoot in all manual mode, and use a remote/cable release. You can shoot without a remote release, but you risk shakiness in the shot.