Fireworks

From Fireworks

When the Singapore Fireworks Festival was on, I brought my camera out to experiment. I was not really prepared at all - I did not scout out any location and had no idea what settings to use! In the end, we raced to a spot just along Clarke Quay and the fireworks began. I quickly set up my tripod played with my zoom and my shutter speeds. I don't have a shutter release so I had to either use the 2 sec timer or be very gentle with my shutter presses. I discovered that you needed to time the shots to get the best fireworks bursts, so the 2 sec timer was out. If you look closely or zoom in, you'll see that the lines are not straight - there are curves and wobbles - but at this scale it's not very noticable.

I experimented with 2 second exposures, 8 sec exposures and full auto; zoomed in for some individual bursts, and tried to frame the clock tower in most of the shots. These are my favourites, with the middle being an 8 sec shot. I learnt that to capture the beauty of the burst, you need to set a low ISO and hold the shutter open for a couple of seconds. I'll need to invest in a shutter release next time! It was a great show!