Try, try again...

A week or so before the big 4th of July celebrations in the area, I spent much time researching how to photograph fireworks. I think I read every tutorial and blog post there is and I was determined to master it with all my being.

We decided that we'd check out the fireworks at Camp Susque, thanks to our awesome friends Mike and Kristina Miosi (Camp Director and his head cook, wife)!  It seemed like a great place to test all that I learned over the course of the week leading up to the 4th.

Prior to arriving at Camp Susque, I had changed all the necessary settings on my camera and equipped myself with my remote shutter release and tripod.

We arrived in plenty of time to scope out a great place to set-up shop.  The setting was stunningly beautiful...directly on the opposite side of the Camp pond.  The anticipation was killer as we watched darkness fall upon us.  Soon all we could really see was a little reflection in the pond directly in front of us, literally about 10 feet away.  We even had some extra company while we waited...a couple of bullfrogs and a fish or two that entertained us.

Most memorable moment: our friends' kiddos where catching lightning bugs and accidentally smooshed one so they placed it at the edge of the pond as a form of burial.  Next, these little girls stood shoulder to shoulder and proceeded to sing Amazing Grace.  It was priceless!

What a great little display and FUN time with friends (Mike, Kristina, Isaac and Rachel and their kiddos!). 

Unfortunately, I discovered very quickly how important distance between me and the fireworks are when attempting to photograph them. 

Here's one shot I was able to sort of salvage from my first attempt (don't judge!)...

This location definitely has potential.  I love the reflection off the pond but undoubtedly realize that I need to readjust my distance from the fireworks.

Epic fail.  :-(

I had one last hope of capturing some fireworks...Saturday night at Jersey Shore!  Again, we packed up the car with all my gear, this time including my wheelchair so that we'd be mobile once we found a parking spot for the car which, by the way, took about 40 minutes!

I think we traveled every side street in Jersey Shore - it was total chaos not only because of the fireworks display but because of their annual 4th of July carnival that was going on!  We finally landed in the Arby's parking lot and my handy assistant (Bob) wheeled me to our unknown location.

We scouted a couple of spots as darkness fell upon us and finally just decided to park ourselves between two vehicles in a really odd location but it was the best we could do under the circumstances.

Here's my second attempt at photographing fireworks (for those of you who've already seen the display on FB, you can skip to the end.)...

I'm beyond thrilled with the results!  We had a terrible location but you'd never know it from the photos.  There was an obnoxious lamp post off to the left of the photo and the roof of a building at the bottom right just below my watermark.  I carefully positioned my camera between each so that I could capture as many clean shots as possible.

Now we'll at least have an idea of what we're doing for the next time around.

For anyone interested in knowing the "secrets", it's pretty basic and exactly like every tutorial says:

• Shoot in all manual mode, including manual focus.
• Change a few settings in your camera like long exposure noise reduction, smile/face detection and steady shot to OFF. 
• Set your manual focus to infinity (if it's a zoom lens like I used (24-70mm), zoom out as far as it will go.  This concept really seemed odd to me since I'm so used to "focusing" on the subject.  Trust me, as confusing as it seems, just go with it...it works!  Just be sure to aim your lens in the sky where the fireworks are in view and be prepared to make little adjustments along the way.
• Mount your camera on a tripod.
• Equip your camera with a remote shutter release.  This is critical so that you don't move the camera and cause blurring of your images.  You'll get the hang of "when" to press the remote shutter release.  Basically, when I saw liftoff of the fireworks, I'd press the button so that by the time it actually exploded, I captured the entire thing!  Hard to believe but it really works!
• Set your aperture to F8-F11.  You may have to play with this and the shutter speed a bit to find the sweet spot.
• Set your shutter speed to 2-4 seconds. I believe that most of the above photos were shot at F10 and a shutter speed of 2 to 4 seconds.  The grand finale will be extremely bright so whatever you do, remember to change your shutter speed to 1-2 seconds so that your photos aren't over-exposed like mine were.
• Set the ISO to 100.
• And lastly, chose a proper distance from the fireworks so you have great composition for your photograph, instead of the roof of a building or a lamp post!  :-)

I think one of the biggest questions each tutorial left me with was - how far from the fireworks display should you be.  We guesstimated that we were about a quarter of a mile from the fireworks display in the images above.  The key is to quickly fire off some test shots and preview them so you can make the necessary adjustments on the fly.

And lastly, if at first you don't succeed, try, try again!