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!

Cake Smash for Baby "B"...

Today was a beautiful day for a cake smash! The baby girl of my dear friend, Heather, will be celebrating her very first birthday in a few days.

Not exactly sure where that year went! 

Baby "B" is now walking and cute as a button! Here's a peek from our shoot today...

We had such a great time and it wouldn't have been possible without the help of my other dear friend, Carlene! 

Wow, can you say worker bee!?  She rocked it!

BTW, this amazing cake was made by the talented Jennifer Eisner of Celebrations Cakes & Confections. It was absolutely beautiful!

A forgotten post...

It's hard to believe that so much time has passed since I photographed the beautiful dancers from Turning Pointe School of Ballet in May!  I'm just now realizing that I posted some of the photos to Facebook but forgot to post them here for those of you who do not frequent FB (Thanks for the reminder, Tina and Roni!).

We (yep, Bob was my assistant - that's just how we roll!) had a great day during this photo shoot! It was a lot of fun and amazing to see so many beautiful dancers.  A special thanks to Miss Jackie for hiring us and asking us to return for future photo shoots (guess we did something right!).  ;-)

This little girl has the most amazing blue eyes.  Seriously, they just screamed with blue!

 Miss Jackie is pictured below on the far left. She's a fantastic choreographer!

 LOVE the tutus!

 See, didn't I tell you how beautiful the dancers are!?

BTW, these are all poses that I use daily - YEAH RIGHT!  :-)

Happy Day to our Fathers!

Little did we know that last year would be the last Father's Day that we'd sit around our dining room table with both of our dads in celebration of them. Unfortunately, this year has been a year of some major life changes. Bob's dad is no longer able to live at home and lives permanently in a local nursing home due to his deteriorating battle with alzheimer's/dementia/parkinsons/lyme disease and whatever else he may have. And my dad is still recovering from his colon cancer - doing well but it has definitely taken a toll on him.  

If my memory serves me correctly, our families have always come together on Mother's Day and Father's Day. It sort of became a tradition so that we could all be together. 

Truth be told, I've been dreading this particular day and this particular meal because Bob who normally says the blessing before we eat, had previously informed me that there was no way he could get through the prayer - that I would have to say the blessing.  I prayed and prayed about it beforehand that I could make it through with NO tears!  

As we scurried around placing food on the table I continued to pray silently that I could do this - I HAD to do this! It's a simple thing to do.

Everyone sat down, joined hands and suddenly I was on a roll, feeling pretty confident after a couple of words.  I started so strong, feeling like I had this and then...

I crashed and burned.

And I mean badly. 

Several seconds went by (which felt more like minutes)...

There was dead silence as the lump in my throat grew larger and larger.

And then the stinkin' tears made their appearance.

I tried my hardest to recover but it was the most difficult prayer I've ever tried to utter aloud!  I blubbered through the words not even remembering what I said but hoping I said something reminiscent of thank you to our dads and that we're blessed that we still have our dads in our lives, even if one is in a nursing home.

It's not always about keeping the old traditions but being flexible and starting new ones. Our new tradition is simply a modification of the old one.

We'll come together around our table and then visit Big Bob around his table.  We'll make it work because that's what we do!

This is me and my family (my mom, my dad and my sister, Tammy - NO, she's not my twin) - photo taken in Wellsboro this past Friday, June 14, 2013...

Father's Day 2012 - I'm so glad I took these photos of Bob and his parents last year...

 I feel the need to end with a humorous photo since this post was pretty heavy!

Even though Big Bob was going through major changes last Father's Day, I was able to capture a glimpse of his sense of humor, even if it was just for a fleeting moment...