Independence Day

Well it is that time of year again. The Time when Americans get all hot under the collar with patriotism and they have to cool themselves off by firing off inordinate amounts of highly combustible rockets into the night sky! Fireworks!

So yesterday I went up to St. Joe to chill with a friend and watch their fireworks show (since I'm sure it was more interesting than staying here in Valparaiso). It was my first real attempt at doing some serious shooting of fireworks (I had years and years ago with my little point and shoot at the time, but that doesn't count). There isn't really much to be said about the composition of each photo, and the Exif data is basically the same for theme all (I did switch from f/16 to f/18 about halfway through, though). 

It was a good exercise in really learning more about low-light photography (which I already talked about in my previous blog post about the moon), and how the aperture really does affect it. I was shooting on the Bulb setting on my D7000, as well, and I could also tell how long I left the shutter open really affected the shots. 

One thing that should be said is that there was a pretty good wind coming in from the Lake (Lake Michigan) so that affected it quite a bit.

I'll start with the pictures of single fireworks that I somehow managed to get:

   

For some reason the blog format won;t let me put small pictures in the middle here, too, even though there is obviously enough space for them. I even tried manipulating down in the html, but to no avail. Maybe I just need to make my template wider. Probably.

Anyways, it was a really nice night right by the lake. It was probably 103F or so at my house, so I decided that I had to get out of there, at least for a little while. So we drove up to Michigan and chilled with my friend Steve. Here is his personal website: http://stevekbooth.com/

He took some great photos too, with his Canon 1D Mark 4. You can see some of them under his "Blog" tab, then follow the link to his flickr account.

I really like this one on the Right ->

IT looks like some sort of fire palm tree

This one on the right, again, is two of those starbursts that I like. I think it might have been when I was stopped down to f/20 or so, as its a bit darker

And now for some Finale pictures:

The finale was a bit bright for the cameras, though, especially because of the massive amounts of smoke in front of the fireworks.

This one was the very last one that I took, right as the finale ended

->

These next few are my personal favorites of the ones that I took (therefore they shall be in larger format than the tiny pictures above)

 I really really like the blue explosion in there, it is almost perfect. When I saw this one on my camera I was like "Aww, I wish I could have gotten that all by itself, because that's awesome"

 I really like the big spark trails in this one coming out from the almost perfectly formed fireworks. Lovely.

 Oh! I spoke too soon! I did get a nearly perfect shot of a single firework!

And this one is just a good combination of everything.

I had a really enjoyable time yesterday taking pictures (even though I did get home at like midnight and didn't fall asleep until 2am and I had work at 7am this morning). I am pretty proud of the pictures that I got, too.

And that's all for now. I have a Manfrotto Tripod Coming tomorrow, so I'll let you all know how that works out for me (maybe include a quick thing about it in my Lowepro Flipside 400AW review that I plan to do this weekend).

Catch you on the Flipside,

Kevin

TV: Chopped

Movie: Ted

Game: Rayman Forever

Music: All.I.Can. Soundtrack

Food: um, I'll let you know once I make it.

Night Photos!

Went out with my new lens and took some photos of the full moon, since this is the first time that I have owned such a long lens for a full moon. I also went out on a 6.5 mile long bike ride today, sort of got lost in Valparaiso for a bit, just wandering the streets on my bike. So that was fun. I was wearing my new Lowepro Flipside 400AW camera bag just to test it out. It was remarkably comfortable, even riding pretty quickly on a bike with my large Opteka Monopod strapped to the side. I'll probably do a review for both of those at some point. That and I'll eventually do an in depth review of the good aspects and bad aspects of my 80-200mm f/2.8D, too.

So I took all of these photos with my 80-200mm at about 200mm, with f/11 and 1/250 shutter speed and ISO 200

Then, since it is the 3rd of July, some people started shooting off fireworks near where I was, so I just swung my big lens over on them and kept shooting, though I slowed the shutter speed down quite a bit.

Best two. So yeah. Tomorrow is the 4th of July, and Valparaiso has a pretty good fireworks display for such a small town. So tonight was sort of practice for tomorrow. I also did some location scouting while out on my bike ride (before I got lost, though).

That's all for tonight, as its almost 12:30 am. I'm getting tired...

So Preow

Kevin

TV: Chopped

Movie: Ted

Music: Techno Stuff

Game: Minecraft for a bit

Food: I'm hungry... I really shouldn't watch the Food network at night...

The Festival of Summer...

Or rather...

Summerfest!

So that is where I went this last weekend with a few people. We drove up there on Saturday morning (left here at about 9am or so) to get there by about 3:30 after dropping off stuff at the place where we were going to stay Saturday night.

We found a great parking spot that only cost us $10 (as opposed to like $30 for any parking in Chicago), and I got these shots on our way to the gate.
(note, all of these pictures were either taken with my point-and-shoot or my phone)

These are both of the Milwaukee Art Museum, which I went to last year before I went to Summerfest. If you are ever in Milwaukee, I would definitely recommend it, its awesome.

Walked to the gate, went in, paid the exorbitantly awesome price of $16, and just wandered around for a while. Got some food. etc. Watched some random bands which I shall detail herein:

Band 1: Machines are people Too.

 I actually thought that they did pretty well, considering that the main singer looked like he was about 40 with the creeper mustache. It was actually a pretty nice band, all in all. It had a very alternative style without being too hipster.

Band 2: I don't remember the name of this one. Oh well.

Band 3: Abigail Grey
The main singer was from Scotland, which is always awesome. As well, the band used a violin and a trumpet, instead of just drums and guitars and keyboards.

Band 3: Mars Argo
Basically trying to be Evanescence. Didn't work. 'Nuff said.

 Band 4: Fresh Cut Collective.
These guys were ALL OVER THE PLACE. They had singers and rappers and dancers and keyboard players and even an Indian/Arab guy rapping. Though some of their songs got really annoying after a little bit, they were genuine entertainers, and that is a good thing.

I figure that I should include a few pictures I took while we were wandering.

Lets see, am I leaving anything out....








Oh yeah!









ZZ TOP!

Tickets for $16.00. Pretty damn good, if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, like a fool, I only brought one battery for my point and shoot, so my battery died like right as they started, so I had to resort to trying to get anything with my phone...

But I won't subject you to that because they turned out... just awful... Ok, I might do another quick post with a few from that once I hook my phone up to my computer, but just not now.

Now It is almost the 4th of July! I'll be taking some pictures during the fireworks show tomorrow, and probably posting those the day after.

So that's all for now.

Preow

Kevin

TV: Chopped
Movie: Ted
Music: well, you can probably guess...
Game: Castle Crashers
Food: Not nearly enough.