2013 Fourth of July

The celebration of our independence. What better way to spend it than cooking in the outdoors and watching explosions in the sky with family and friends. After meeting up at Howarth Park in Everett with the rest of our Texas folk for burg's and dogs, along with plenty of other good eats, we planned on watching the fireworks show happening in North Everett. Plan A was to catch the show from Langus Riverfront Park on Smith Island. If that was filled up, plan B was the marina and boat launch near Port Gardner. Plan C was braving the crowds at Legion Memorial. I for one, did not want plan C. This was all based on the fact that the fireworks would be coming from Legion. Of course, this fact was not factual, and as it turns out they would be ignited from Port Gardner. Plan B it was. It couldn't have turned out any better. We were front row and only about two-hundred yards from the barge that had the massive amounts of pyrotechnics on board. Amazing view.

Now, this is my first time shooting any kind of fireworks, so it was mostly experimental. The longer exposures, 8-20 secs, seemed to work best. I adjusted aperture to the shutter speed accordingly. I think I came out with some pretty good shots. Definitely room for improvement and technique, but not bad for a newbie. The truly amazing thing though, is that most of these shots are relatively un-processed. There are a couple that I had to underexpose and reel in the highlights on, but for the most part, I couldn't do much to improve on the beauty that was already there.