Fireworks - Optics4Birding Nature Blog

Happy 4th of July 2015

This year we stayed close to home to watch the 4^th of July 2015 fireworks. Walking to the top of the hill that is next to our local high school we were able to see several fireworks displays from one place. The beauty of our local 2015 firework shows were quite impressive and certainly worth an attempt at taking nice photos of. Since I had tried taking photos of the fireworks last year I figured my 2015 firework photos might be a bit better. As it turns out they are!

How to Take Fireworks Photos

So for you guys out there that want to take photos of the fireworks here is what I did. Last year I shot the fireworks at ISO 200. This year I brought that down to ISO 100. Last year I shot the photos at f/8. This year I shot my photos at f/11 to get better depth of field. Both years I shot using a bulb setting so I could vary the shutter time. Last year the photos we taken mostly from about 3 to 6 seconds exposure time. This year most of my shots were taken with a 6-10 second exposure time.

Our 4th of July Greeting

Hope you enjoy the pictures and that this year will continue to bring many outdoor viewing opportunities. A good pair of binoculars and or spotting scope from Optics4Birding makes the viewing experiences of life more enjoyable. Happy 4^th of July to you from all the Optics4Birding staff.

Happy birthday United States. We at Optics4Birding have great hopes for both our people and nature. Both are tied together. In order for us to stay healthy, the world of nature also need to stay healthy. Getting outdoors to see the fireworks is a good start for the remainder of the year.

Click on the photo to enlarge it and to page through other firework photos.

4th of July 2015 fireworks in Southern California

2015 fireworks in Southern California (click image to enlarge)

Happy 4th of July 2014 fireworks

We went to see the fireworks near Laguna Niguel Regional Park for 4th of July. Optics4Birding is located in southern California in the city of Irvine. I live about 15 minutes from work and near the Laguna Niguel Regional Park. The hills surrounding this area open the possibility for seeing many of the firework displays in South Orange County.

From where we were we could see four different shows at once. It was really impressive. I have never tried to take photos of fireworks before so it also became a learning lesson. A little reading on the internet gave me instructions for doing this. Shortly before dark we hiked up a dirt road in the hills next to our local high school and setup my camera on a tripod. Next year’s photos promise to be much better now that I have a bit of experience with this.

Since I do quite a bit of photography at night for our owling.com web site, I hoped that this would not be too difficult. Still this is a very different type of photography. Photographing the owls at night is done at closer range using a flash. Photographing the fireworks require extended shutter times with a camera on a tripod. All considered, this is just one more method of taking photographs.

I tried several different settings to do this. The best results came from setting my ISO between 100-400 and taking a timed photo of 5 to 8 seconds. I used my 100-400mm Canon lens so I could shoot some of the distant fireworks too. The shots were taken with the aperture set at 5.6. For a first try at this, the photos were just fine and I was happy.

Happy 4th of July to all from Optics4Birding. We hope to see many of you out looking at nature this upcoming year. Enjoy the photos and try to get outdoors as much as you can. We believe at Optics4Birding that if we all enjoy the outdoors, we will protect it and its precious life.