Fourth of July Fireworks

I am fascinated by the idea of chance when it come to photography. With long exposures of things like fireworks or fire we are open to pure chance. Sure, we can do things to try to give us some control over the situation but, really, it comes down to luck. This photo was a 4 second exposure. There was no way for me to guess that the firing would lead to the shape of a heart. Just serendipity.

Most of my work is previsualized. I read the Ansel Adams technique books and put a lot of what I learned from them into practice.  I find a great deal of pleaure in seeing a photograph in my head and making it happen in reality. The idea of shooting something like fireworks or fire in general is exciting in a completely different way. I have to give up a lot of control over the situation and just hope for the best. 

For this series I varied shutter speed from .8 to 6 seconds and incorporated both camera movement and focus shift to achieve these effects.
You can see more of the fireworks series and some of my work with fire by clicking here.

As always, I hope you enjoy the photography.

If you have any comments, ideas or suggestions you'd like to share, I'd love to hear from you. 

---