Introduction
Well, us folk here in the United States celebrated our Independence Day about ten days ago. As an American citizen, it’s a fun time to remember our history and how far we’ve come as a nation. Now, there are some who would ask questions about the U.S. and its status. That is a long rabbit hole which I do not want to go down, nor is it the purpose of this blog to do so. What I can say is while America does have flaws, it also has strengths that should not be discounted.
The perhaps stereotypical custom of enjoying a fireworks show was not lost on me or my family this year. The big fireworks show for our town is hosted at the county fairgrounds which are conveniently right across the road from our house. Strangers like to park along the road’s shoulder and get good views of the display. As long as they pick up their trash and generally behave, me and my family are ok with it.
Photography experience
We had some new church friends come join us in our front lawn this year, and I took the opportunity to practice fireworks photography. Thank goodness there was a built-in fireworks photography mode in my camera, or I’m not sure what I would have done. I am not a professional photographer, but I was able to make do with my little camera. Some of the pictures were bad enough I just deleted them during the show, but I think I got enough decent photos to display.
Many good lessons were learned from photographing fireworks. The first and likely most important lesson being that it is very hard! The built-in fireworks mode on my camera had a lengthy delay between me pressing the button to capture the image and the image actually capturing. This meant that I had to try and hold the camera still while the photo was taken. This was not easy since I do not consider myself as having steady hands and no other equipment to assist.
Perhaps a more experienced photographer can confirm if delay is needed for photographing fireworks or not. If that is the case, then I should consider investing into more or better equipment. Even if I do not, some fireworks have tells as to when they are about to explode. These tells might help me predict where they could be should I try again. Overall, the occurrence of photographing fireworks was fun, insightful, and a good experience into planning ahead.
Forethought
Pivoting slightly on the subject of planning ahead, I will admit that I am ashamed that this post is coming ten bleeding days after the event itself. The whole post should have been done this time last week. I had typed up the first three paragraphs in a MS Word doc by then and have been freewriting the rest of this post for about the past 30 minutes with little difficulty. Even with the ability to plan ahead, I find myself asking ‘why was this put off for so long?’
I guess there are a couple of excuses I could use to shield myself. These excuses include that I am helping work on my family’s farm and I am still searching for a proper job. However, I don’t want to make excuses. This is my blog, it is my responsibility to maintain, and I should own up to it whenever I fail to do so. I should not be finalizing a blog about the 4th of July ten days late; I should be finalizing a blog about something more relevant.
Closing
For this week (July 11-17), there will be two blog posts. This one about fireworks is the first. The second post will be another photography blog about a car show which happened over the weekend of July 9 and 10. Both blogs are vessels for me to experiment with the different photo collection options like “Stacked,” “Offset,” and “Collage”. I used a Gallery style for these fireworks, and am currently leaning toward Masonry for the car show. See everyone shortly.
James Meyer 