Forum: Photography

Subject: Oh beautiful. For spacious skies.

bsteph2069 opened this issue on Jul 05, 2001 ยท 13 posts

bsteph2069 posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 3:37 AM

For amber waves of grain. For Purple Mountain majestys. Upon the fruited plain. America, America. God Shed his grace on thee. And crowned thy hood. with brotherhood from ses to shining sea. I expect everybody who lives in the US to post one of these. I'll start it off. Just hot from the digital press. I'll get the other 35mm back in a couple of weeks. completely uncorrected. Bsteph

picnic posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 10:07 AM

nope, didn't do fireworks this year LOL. It was pouring rain here.

Marshmallowpie posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 11:28 AM

I have some firework pics but they're old...

Syyd posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 2:39 PM

O Beautiful! For spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plains, America, America God shed his grace on thee, and crown thy good, with brotherhood, from Sea to Shining Sea! thank you for this, it brought back lots of memories. Syyd

RJH posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 5:25 PM

From Canada day

RJH posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 5:30 PM

one more sorry about size straight from cam.

Alpha posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 7:07 PM

OK Heres the deal on shooting fireworks. Start by making a short (2 to 3 length) light tight tube to fit over your lens (I would use the longest lens I have available). This can be made from black poster board and gaffers tape (gaffers tape is basically black duct tape). The tube should slide over your lens with just a very slight amount of friction. Now find a place to watch the fireworks that does not have much ambient light in the area (the darker the better). Mount your camera on a tripod and if you have one attach the cable release. Set your camera to f-8 and focus on infinity. Set the shutter speed to bulb (this means that as long as the shutter release is pressed the shutter stays open). Now zero in on the area where the majority of the fireworks will explode. Place your handy dandy tube over the lens and press the shutter release. Do not let go. Each time you see a burst coming that you want to record, remove the tube and then replace it after the burst. My suggestion is to build up three to five bursts for each exposure then let the shutter close and go to the next frame or image. While it is nearly impossible to predict exactly what you will have, the results are usually pleasing.

Syyd posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 7:14 PM

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and thank you!

picnic posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 7:32 PM

Beautiful Alpha.

bsteph2069 posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 7:57 PM

Cool. I'll try that next time. If I can. How close were you? I was about two miles away. ( I used the full strength of the 10X zoom! ) Bsteph

bsteph2069 posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 7:58 PM

Thanks everyone for the posts. Fireworks are meaningfull experiences for me. Bsteph

Alpha posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 9:08 PM

I was probably within 1/4 mile and using a 200 MM lens. If you really want to shoot something like this it might be worth finding a display in a small town and driving a couple hours to get there. Just a thought :)

bsteph2069 posted Thu, 05 July 2001 at 10:52 PM

Yeah you're probably right. I planned ahead and was waiting patiently about two to three hours a head anyway. Bsteph