4th of July

We had an awesome 4th of July weekend! Josh and I (well..mostly Josh) cleaned out and organized our garage. Josh started working in there at about 10:30am and wasn't done until about 10:30pm.

Sunday started out with a service at Hesky Park..and then a super fun relaxing day at the Jamesons (Jakes parents). We relaxed by the pool while the kids played and swam and played and swam. Lots of yummy food...a chair massage by Ian for everyone and then ended the day with fireworks here in Meredith.

I didn't even try to take pics of the fireworks last year because I was so frustrated with my attempts the year before. Having a much better understanding this year, I decided to give it a shot. I have to say..I am closer...but still not quite there yet!

My issues stem from the fact that one of the legs to my tripod is currently duct taped on..which makes for a very flimsy tripod. Its more like a bi-pod. The second thing that would help is a remote for my shutter. Much of the camera shake in my pics came from the initial shutter release...which is partially the fault of my duct taped tripod! I suppose with a more sturdy tripod, the shutter release would be less of an issue.

Anyway..you can see that in most of the pics there is some shake with the initial firwork, but then you will notice that the ones that came behind it (with my camera set on a 2.5 sec shutter speed) were much more crisp.

I'll take this as a victory:) Next year will hopefully be better!

Camera settings:
ISO 200
f16
SS 2.5 sec
(I also used my polarizer filter to help with the amount of light let in with such a long shutter speed)

Here are a few of the better ones...yet still not quite what I want, but definitely closer! I posted a bunch on smugmug too.
http://brownjelo.smugmug.com/Other/Fireworks/12806982_WDPJW#923343154_UkfnC