Photographing Canada Day Fireworks

On Canada Day weekend a couple of weeks ago I was at the cottage with my family enjoying fantastic food and the beautiful Muskoka air when I decided it was time to live creatively and try something new photographically. We piled into the car and I drove us into Baysville to watch the amazing fireworks the fire department puts on, funded entirely by donation.

I wanted to try photographing fireworks. It’s not something I’ve ever done before, though I had planned on attempting in May but the fireworks show I planned to attend was cancelled. My preliminary research indicated that aside from bearing in mind all of my long exposure techniques there are a few other things to remember.

• fireworks create smoke, so make sure there’s not too much of it between me and my subject
• exposure times of 1 to 4 seconds work best
• get there early to secure a good spot

So now I present to you a the results of the challenge I gave myself, my first attempt ever at photographing fireworks. Enjoy!

You can find lots more tips for photographing fireworks over on Chase Jarvis’ blog.

Have you photographed fireworks lately? Did it work out for you or was there something you struggled with? Share your photographs and your questions in the comments section and we can work through it together.