Celebrating the 4th of July Early

This past Friday, the boys and I took two of our dogs to the Red White and Kaboom, First Friday celebration.  Being a photographer, believe it or not, I had only taken pictures of fireworks once before.

The first time was a last minute thing.  I didn't know there were going to be fireworks where we were, so when it came time, I used my knees as a tripod.

This time, I went equiped with a tripod - albeit one that really isn't built to support the weight of the camera that I had with me (I need to get a new one!), and I hadn't thought about bringing my lens with a wider angle.  I ended up having to put my elbow on the cross-bars of my tripod to support the weight of the camera.  I would have absolutely DIED if it would have fallen off!

We sat pretty close to the display, so my 24-70mm lens didn't make the cut for the shots that I really wanted to get.  The lake that they were on, has a beautiful setting.  I wanted to get the water, lights, fountain, and fireworks - the whole shabang - all in the shot.  With my first picture of the night, I was able to get all of these components in the shot - not how I'd like it - but you can get the gist of what I mean:

Can't wait until I can try this shot again with the correct tripod and a wider angle lens!  Woo Hoo!  That'll be cool.

Here are more shots from the night.  This next picture is a shot from where we sat down for a little rest (Our mastiff looked like she needed a little break!  She's a big girl - lol).  We had gotten there about an hour earlier and walked around the lake a couple times  - it had been drizzling too.

Here are the best shots from the night.  Now that I look back at them, they didn't turn out too bad considering!

This next picture actually has major camera shake - I was laying on my back using a slow shutter speed.  The man in this family actually works at the same place that I do.  Wider angle and better tripod...could have been a masterpiece!