Fireworks!
D. Paul Angel

Happy Independence Day all! With the Supreme Court finally interpreting the 14th Amendment as its written, I feel like our country has grown up just that little bit more. For my entire life the 4th of July has been a day of BBQ and fireworks; one giant birthday party for our country, best celebrated with family and friends.

So I wanted to share pictures I took of the fireworks show in downtown Portland exactly 1 year ago today (imagine that!). In case you wanted to take your own pictures, I thought I’d share how I took mine. I have a Canon T3, which is the entry level DSLR for Canon. I used a tripod and shutter release with the shutter set for 2 seconds. Dial down the F-Stop to the fastest position you can, ie f22 or faster, and set the focus to infinity. (Oh, and point it towards the fireworks too!)

The fast F-Stop will help make your background darker, and the slower shutter speed will help to capture the arcing curves of lights. The other secret I found is to take a lot of pics. It is a total crapshoot as to how well the pictures are going to turn out because of the uncertainty of the fireworks themselves. Good luck, and please share any you get in the comments!

Happy 4th of July!