Okay, here's some of my 4th of July pics.

[drdan]

We went to the park to hear the Colorado Springs Symphony play and watch the fireworks. They always start the fireworks with the 1812 overture complete with cannons. I got lots of fireworks pics and some make neat abstracts. I only included one which I call "The Palm".

I thought this was a colorful picture.

These are the howitzers (I think they're howitzers) that they used in the 1812 overture.

Here is one going off. You can see the light sticks of the soldiers and some minor fireworks over the trees. I had paper stuffed in my ears but the impact of this concussion knocked me back slightly and with about 20 of these going off I was a little dazed for several minutes. The impact of the shockwave to my body actually hurt a little. I guess this means I'm a crazy photographer huh?

 

[GerryDavid]

Hehe, most of us are crazy though. Walking around in -30C weather, walking around mosquito infested forests, etc.

That would have been interesing to see all the canon's go off. I cant see how it could hurt to be next to them, but I believe you, hehe.

 

[LaFoto]

Cra-whooooooom!

Wow!
I'd love to hear the 1812 ouverture by Tshaikovsky live just for once, and with real canon fire on top of it. (In any recording I listen closely to whether they use canon fire or not, and in most cases they don't... :-(). I envy you for the experience as such - but did you really have to get up so close as to feel pain from the shockwave? That IS a little crazy, indeed!

We get to see many a good photo of fireworks on this board these days, but your "palm tree" stands out a little (though this is nothing against MrSid's wonderful firework pics!).

You should all get together and have a collage done of all your fireworks photos here!

 

[luckydog]

I really like the palm tree fireworks in the first picture. Good exposure and timing on that one mate.

 

[Scott WRG Editor]

Nice pictures.

I made the mistake of sitting next to the howitzers at the 4th of July celebrations in Boston one year. The guns are arranged to "fire" over the Charleston River. They have a section of the water cordoned off from boats (hundreds of boats sit in the river to watch the fireworks and listen to the Pops). A poor guy in an inner tube decided to cross the cordoned area at the wrong time. The gun crew sergeant tried to wave him off but it was too late and the first gun fired. The shockwave from the barrel (illustrated in the picture above) caused the water level to momentarily drop. The man dropped with it then the water crashed back in. The man started to paddle frantically when the second one went off, catching him again. At this point he abandoned the tube and swam back the way he came and then to the shore where two nice Boston Police where waiting for him. Lesson of the day, police cordons, especially ones in front of an artillery battery, are there for a reason and not to inconvenience you

Wish I had my camera at that time.

 

[terri33 4]

Nice group of images, with lotsa good action, Dan! You have some gorgeous, vibrant color in the second one, with nice skin tones. Great job.

 

[mrsid99]

Real neat representative collage of July 4th, crisp and colorful too!
The "palm tree" is great, what were your settings?
BTW, thanks LaFoto.

 

[youyesyou]

wow, i really like that last one. did you have long exposure on or did you just click at the right time? i ask, because the figure to the right doesn't seem blurry, as in, he wasn't moving when you had the exposure set. very cool.

 

[drdan]

I had the Sony 717 set on auto but shutter priority. I tried several different shutter speds but I think 4 seconds worked the best and I believe that's what this was. The cannon was also caught with a 4 second exposure. The guy who seems to be not moving was probably frozen in place by the concussions like I was.