Freedom over Texas Fireworks

Location - Eleanor Tinsley Park . Houston . Texas

Always having wanted to shoot fireworks and living in Houston, TX there is no better day to do it than on the 4th of July at the "Freedom over Texas" event. It is held at one of the most photogenic parts of H town, Eleanor Tinsley Park on Buffalo Bayou (along Allen Parkway). The tricky part is to get the right spot because the fireworks come in as a finale to an evening of festivities and the place is crowded. Also fully open tripods are frowned upon because they do pose a trip hazard in the actual event location. There are probably locations outside that are better vantage points but I was already in and the country music was great. So I decided to hunker down and wait for the fireworks to start. Firework settings are pretty simple. Of course you have to shoot manual and on a tripod. The key is to keep the ISO at 100, aperture to around f11 (make sure to use the sharp zone of the lens you are using) and then just play around with the shutter speed. I started with 3 sec. and then climbed up. Depending on the way the fireworks are going, adding seconds can create interesting patterns like the one below that reminds me to fluorescent palm trees which was probably three bursts of fireworks shot at 11 sec. Shorter shutter speeds will capture individual bursts which can be interesting in themselves.