There they were, a continuous, almost organized line of middle-aged men in various stages of unfolding tripods, mounting massive DSLRs on them, carefully aiming long lenses at indeterminate points in the darkening late evening sky. The LCDs lit their faces with a soft glow as they took test shots and talked among one another while fiddling with various items from their giant bags of equipment.
I'm photographer David Johnson, and in this tutorial I'll be sharing how I shoot long-exposure photos of defocused fireworks.
On July 4th, photographer Dylan Schwartz watched the Independence Day firework shows in Los Angeles from an ultra wide-angle perspective. He climbed up over 5,000 feet and watched the brilliant shows across the entire L.A. basin from nearby Mount Wilson.
This photo of July 4th celebrations in Los Angeles shows 10 minutes worth of fireworks compressed into a single photo.
While most photographers captured this year's July 4th fireworks from below, Los Angeles-based photographer Aaron Keigher decided to find a different vantage point. He ventured up Mount Wilson, which rises over 5,000 feet above LA and create this dazzling time-lapse showing fireworks exploding across the landscape.
Last weekend, following the Fourth of July festivities, we shared a wonderful video of a Florida fireworks show as seen by a drone recording from within the show, perilously close to the colorful explosives. It wasn't the only such video to air post-Independence Day, however.
Others, including the video above shot by Robert Hartline in Nashville, TN also received tens of thousands of hits and, as it turns out, a bit more attention than he bargained for... Hartline is now being investigated by the FAA.
Seeing as it's the day after July 4th, it seemed appropriate to share a different perspective on a fireworks show than most people are likely to see popping up in their News Feeds. Shot by videographer Jos Stinglingh in West Palm Beach, Florida using a DJI Phantom 2 and GoPro Hero 3 Silver edition, this captivating video puts you closer to the action than you might ever otherwise wish to get.
The 4th of July fireworks show in San Diego malfunctioned yesterday, resulting in an entire show's 20-minutes worth of fireworks released in 15 seconds that the Port of San Diego attributed to a corrupted computer file.
But for some prepared photographers, the display resulted in some singular photos of the large fireballs.
There's plenty of tutorials online teaching you the "proper" techniques for photographing fireworks, but have you ever tried shooting them "incorrectly" on purpose? When photography enthusiast Pete Rogina took his Canon 5D Mark II out to capture fireworks this past Independence Day, he decided to try "light painting" with the fireworks by shooting them at long exposures without a tripod, waving the camera so that the streaks of light would take on abstract shapes.