Fireworks Again

I tried shooting fireworks earlier this summer at a Kernels baseball game but the photos were not the long tails that and brilliant lights that we associate with fireworks.

My problems was that my iso was too high, my f stop too low and my shutter too fast and needed a tripod to hold the camera.

I had another chance on July 4. We, my family and I, decided to go to the Kernels game and watch the fireworks they had. We also were able to see the Cedar Rapids Downtown ones from the game as well and occasionally there were other fireworks going off.

This time I lowered my iso to 100, raised my f stop to f/11, and used my shutter remote to have the exposures of 2 seconds or longer. While I was not able to take in my tripod I was able to take my monopod. These were  much better.

This was one at the very beginning when the field lights were not completely dimmed. I really like the the field in the foreground with the fireworks with long tails in the back and the starring of the fireworks just before they exploded.

The next two are during the Kernels firework show with the downtown fireworks in the background.

The next two are after the Kernels fireworks show ended but the downtown one was still going on. These were further away and we had a little bit of monopod movement but I like the effect it gave to these.

These are a lot more interesting that my previous attempt with fireworks. I can still see a lot of room for improvement but these are so much better. A tripod would have been better because they are much stabler than a monopod but the monopod made these possible because there was no way I could have hand held my camera for these. Also using my shutter release cable allowed my to have longer exposures without adding any movement from pressing the shutter release button on the camera.