Every winter I pass on photographing the New Years Eve fireworks display. Generally because it’s too cold, raining, snowing, etc. This year though, the weather couldn’t have been better. Clear sky, very light wind and temps well above freezing. Had to get out and do it this time. Many people want to know how to take good fireworks photos. I saw people last night shooting with flashes on. Doesn’t work! Fireworks ARE the flash! You don’t need high speed photography or a super fast lens either. I shot these at F-11. What you do need though is a tripod. My exposures were 4 seconds. (ISO 200, F-11 @ 4 seconds) with a Nikon D700. The other thing that helps is to scout your location ahead of time and arrive early to stake out your spot. I did both. I decided on a downwind location so the smoke didn’t blow toward me and ‘fog’ the exposures and I wanted a mix of skyline and bridge in the composition. Getting there early allowed me to stake out the exact spot I’d scouted previously and here are my results:
Hope it’s a good year for the planet.

















































