Saturday, July 3, 2010

Creation of Strange and Unique Photos

Happy Fourth of July to all!!  Hope you enjoyed this long weekend and got some great photos. My favorite photos shooting on this weekend is of course the fireworks. So how do you shoot fireworks?  I use a tripod, a zoom lens and a long exposure. As an example of fireworks shooting, the photo on the left was done by having the camera on "bulb" setting (in Manual Setting).  I set the lens to an F-Stop of F/11. I hold the shutter down (in the "bulb" mode, the shutter stays open as long as you hold the shutter open. In the photo at the left, I moved the zoom lens in and out to get some rather usual effects.  I open the shutter as the fireworks is leaving the ground, as the explosion happens, I either zoom out or in depending on what I am trying to achieve. As the second explosion happens I release the shutter and get ready for the next set of fireworks to leave the ground. Again, you can just set your zoom lens to the "far out" setting and take spectacular fireworks photos by holding the shutter open until the "fireworks" explosion is over. I like doing both, sometimes just catching a really colorful explosion gets some rather unique photos, but I use the zoom lens and get some even more spectacular fireworks photos. So take your time and do not feel overwhelmed by the fast pace of fireworks, just jump in and shoot and you will be amazed at what you get.  One of the benefits of shooting fireworks is the fact that I am near the ocean and not only do I get the fireworks reflecting on water, but before the fireworks there is always that chance of a real colorful sunset. and yep, I was pretty lucky and got the best of both worlds. Good luck shooting your fireworks and don't be afraid to share those amazing shots.

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