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Friends don’t let friends take horrible fireworks pictures

Awhile ago I posted about how to take fireworks pictures.  Every year I see the same thing.  Shortly before the 4th of July I see tons of requests on how to take fireworks pictures, followed by a slew of truly awful fireworks shots after the event.  Let it stop!

Here’s the truth about fireworks shots.  In order to get that truly amazing fireworks shot you need to be familiar both with where the fireworks will be shot off that year as well as the optimal spot in the city to take a shot.  Typically this ‘optimal place’ will not be empty and you will need to set up way ahead of time in order to get the spot.

While you are setup in this spot, you will need to deal with photographers and spectators setting up right in front of you and if you need to use the bathroom you can consider your spot gone.  If you have kids, you’ll either need to not take them or they will get restless waiting hours before the fireworks.

The other thing to consider here in the Seattle area is that all of our fireworks shows suck.  The fireworks companies here simply do not utilize the more creative shells that many companies on the East coast utilize.  The one show I know of not shot by a local company here – the Seattle show shot by Pyro Spectacular – also sucks.  This puzzled me for some time, as Pyro Spectacular has a good reputation in the fireworks industry.  After some digging I found that the city of Seattle is not a fireworks friendly city and is such a pain to deal with in terms of budget and restrictions that the end result sucks.

Part of being a truly professional photographer is knowing when not to click the shutter.  Fireworks are pretty, but the chances that you will get a great shot haphazardly are close to infinitesimal.  If you are going out with the intention to photograph the fireworks show, my recommendation is to not go out at all.

Several years ago I got sick of fighting the crowds and found my fireworks shots no better than the millions of other horrible fireworks shots that plague the ‘Net after the 4th.  Therefore, I decided to go a different route and I now purchase some small fireworks items and shoot them off in our backyard with the kids.

Our kids now absolutely love the 4th of July and count the days before we shoot the fireworks.  As we have a small backyard I don’t buy anything big – mainly sparklers (the wood kind), some small fountains, bees, and pagodas (a yearly tradition – each child gets his/her own pagoda).  I do not shoot any festival ball and we stopped shooting firecrackers after some of our guests complained about the noise.

This year I hope to take some pictures of the event, as last year we used small sparklers that expired quickly and I spent all of my time distributing them.  My shots may not be masterpieces, but they will be far more memorable and valuable to me than the junk I would have taken at the fireworks shows here.

Therefore, please do your part this year and save energy by not forcing servers around the Internet to transfer your garbage among the millions of garbage fireworks shots that come after the 4th.

My father will be on the Discovery Channel today!

Tonight (Tuesday the 24th) at 10 PM on the Discovery Channel, there is a show called “Wreckreation Nation with Dave Mordall”. The show features two parts. First is a segment on swamp buggies and after that Dave attends the Pyrotechnics Guild International convention in Gillette Wyoming.

In this segment my father will be prominently featured as he attempts to break the world record for number of breaks in a shell. I’m not sure how long he will be on, but I think it should be around ten minutes.

Tips on photographing fireworks from a fireworks professional

Since it is getting to be that time of year again, I thought I would repost a short article I did for a private forum on photographing fireworks. 

While I have rarely taken professional fireworks photos myself, I grew up in the fireworks industry and have worked on numerous professional fireworks shows in the past.  Both of my parents work in the fireworks industry – my mother (who has sold fine art prints of fireworks for some time) full time and my father part time.  I am also a member of the Pyrotechnics Guild International, where my father has won several international competitions. 

1)     Use bulb – no one shutter speed will work for all shots

2)     Use a tripod – should be obvious

3)     Place the tripod on stable ground – bleachers do not work

4)     Photograph away from any lights – particularly street lights.  Often they turn them out just before the show but sometimes they do not.

5)     If you are photographing from a popular place, get there early because you don’t want people in front of you and the best spots will be taken quickly.

6)     Don’t try to get too much in one shot.  You want to be able to recognize the shells – this is especially relevant during the finale.

7)  You can get more fireworks in a shot by putting a piece of black paper in between shots while using bulb mode.  In my opinion the effect looks a bit fake and you can tell it was done by the smoke patterns, but a number of people do prefer the photos.

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