Monday, September 13, 2010

The End of Summer in Cincinnati. Fireworks!

Summer in Cincinnati goes out with a bang on Labor Day weekend. Since 1977, WEBN, a local radio station puts on one of the best fireworks displays in the midwest (which I still don't know why Cincinnati is considered midwest, since we're neither in the middle of the country nor in the West...). WEBN teams up with Rozzi fireworks for the pyrotechnics and synchronize the display to an original soundtrack each year.

For the past many years, I've watched the fireworks on tv. It's HD, and the sound is really good. On top of that, I don't have to deal with the TRAFFIC. This year, however was different. I was asked to be the photographer at an event, and for four hours, my lighting guy (Roman :) and I shot images of people in front of a fireworks backdrop. It was a long night, and I was pretty much ready to go home since I'd been on my feet for four hours. I told Roman that if I can't get a good view of the fireworks, I wanted to go home. Somehow, some way, I was able to get a prime spot overlooking the city, right in front! I set up my tripod, and following is my first attempt at shooting fireworks with my camera on the tripod. I found that ISO 100, 15 seconds at f12 was a pretty good way to get these shots.