This was my first go at photographing fireworks, and it was more difficult than I had expected. I had a particularly hard time getting clean, clutter-free captures at the venue–the viewing area was restricted for safety reasons and there were a number of utility poles and lines obstructing my view of the firing field. A wider lens would have caught a lot of ground and utility clutter. Shooting tighter made for good detail but also made it difficult to track the unpredictable/burst patterns.

I’ve shot a handful of indoor shows, with a variety of lenses.  In this case, I decided to shoot with a couple of faster primes (the Canon 50mm F/1.8 and 35mm F/1.4).  Shooting with these focal lengths at an indoor venue tends to work out very well, or very poorly, depending on the distance to the stage, available lighting, and the type of photo that one has in mind.  In this case, I was more interested in seeing how the primes would perform in terms of focus and color, and not so much concerned with getting any really tight shots.  

The venue itself was small but crowded, and getting up front was inconvenient.  So, I shot everything from the standing room behind the sound booth, stage left, or the balcony.  Given that I didn’t have a lot of focal length on my side, I had to be mindful of both framing and focus, so that shots would be metered appropriately and could be focused relatively quickly in the low light.  My specific concern with respect to metering was the drastic lighting imbalance at a distance–when I had a dark crowd in the bottom of the frame, and a bright stage above–causing my shutter speeds to decrease (when, in my mind, they should not have), resulting in blur where I didn’t want blur.

Overall, I was happy with the results.  And, here are a few of my favorites.  Enjoy . . .