Fine Art Color Abstract Photograph by Brad Rickerby - Fireworks 2

July 4th Fireworks #2

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Limited Edition Prints Available

This image was created On the same night as the previous image. This time, however, the focus is directly on the fireworks themselves. You can see how much more substantial and not at all ethereal the light seems. At the same time, the fireworks are exploding all over the place. Great fun!

Once again, this image was created with a 200 mm lens. The camera was set at ISO 800 and at f 20 for 1/3 of a second. It is hand-held by the way. I call that a steady hand.

Fine Art Color Abstract Photograph by Brad Rickerby - Fireworks

July 4th Fireworks

Photo by Brad Rickerby

Limited Edition Prints Available

July 4th. Near the beach in Rhode Island.  All the beaches are jammed. So we have our own little fireworks display. Just me, the girlfriend and her kids and kid's friends. Store bought fireworks. They amount to nothing but a little flash and a great big bang when you set them off. But with the proper technique, they become art.

The madness was in the method. You set off the fireworks low to the ground and these never gain any altitude. So you have to get under them. You also have to make them look far away, as if they were up in the night sky. That requires the compression of a telephoto. Telephotos have minimum focus distances. So you are lying on the ground, far away, shouting instructions to kids who are having too much fun to pay any attention, as the smoke from previous explosions clears. It was a blast.  I have several of these images which I may post later. In this image, the autofocus picks the main body of sparkles in back to bring into focus so the explosions that have strayed into the foreground go wildly out of focus, creating quite a nice effect. Sort of spectral. 

This image was created with a 200mm lens. ISO 800, at f 4.5 at 1/640 of a second.