Evolving Photographer: Making Realistic Fireworks Photos

Last year, I experimented with my Fourth of July fireworks photos, shooting some of them like a typical photograph, while, in others, I played with shifting focuses while the shutter was open. Having the opportunity to view a city filled with public and private firework displays that rivaled each other for inventiveness and sheer firepower meant that I just had to go with straight-up, vanilla, long exposure firework photos. This isn't exactly a challenge - it's all about framing and hoping for the lucky combination of colors and shapes.

16mm f/20, ISO 320, 20 second exposure

I decided to use my wide-angle Tokina lens, which appears to be the best wide-angle lens out there for a DX (non-full frame) camera. Sure, the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8 (Part of the Nikon "Holy Trinity") is a far superior lens, but it's made for FX (full frame) cameras. That extra $1,500 results in a lot of wasted glass, since the sensor won't be physically seeing all that the lens sees. The Tokina is simple to set up for these kinds of shots - pop it into manual focus and set the focus to infinity.

Braced the tripod against my body to get this 3 second exposure. I wasn't
in a good position to get a perfect silhouette with the fireworks

Of course, for long exposures like these (10-20 seconds was where most of my shots fell), you had better have a tripod. A cable release is ideal, especially when you're sitting still for 45 minutes in freezing temperatures! Since this is me we're talking about, I left my cable release sitting on my desk. But, fear not! You can still get vibration free photos by setting your camera on a 2 second delay from when you press the shutter release. Technology to the rescue of the forgetful!