The Penalty Box

This was taken in August 2011 during the annual Celebration of Light fireworks show. I decided to experiment with some long exposures on this night to see what kind of light magic I could get with the fireworks. I managed to forget my remote that night, so most of the night was spent with my hand on the shutter button and the camera in bulb mode. Standard practice is to use a remote of some sort while mounting the camera on a tripod to reduce camera movement. I remembered my tripod, but forgot the remote. Most of the pictures turned out pretty well because my exposures generally went over 3 seconds. I'd suggest bringing a remote if you want to do this type of shooting if only for the reason that you can sit down while shooting.

I also dialed down the ISO you don't need to crank that ISO while letting in that much light. Still, because that much light goes in, you can notice a bit of grain. Such is the case with long exposures. However, if your picture is interesting enough, I maintain that grain shouldn't matter as much.

A few other tips:

• Use live view if on a DSLR (and if it supports it). Much easier to line up your shots. Don't forget to watch the show outside of the viewfinder/LCD though. Don't be that goober that watches the whole thing on an LCD instead of the sky.
• If you don't have bulb mode on your camera, set your shutter speed for at least 3 seconds. Longer for the long streaks of light.
• Bring a flashlight or one of those headlamps. You'll be fumbling in the dark otherwise.
• Don't forget to bring a fully charged battery. You'll be shooting a lot.
• Bring an extra memory card, in case you forgot to empty the one in your camera. Yes you should have more than one.

f/10, 5 second shutter, ISO 100