Will you be taking 4th of July pics? I never get good....

My cousin just took video of a storm. From her video she took pictures off of it. That may be a way to get good fireworks photos.

I've had some luck setting my camera to take multiple photos all in succession to get a decent firework photo.

It helps because if I am trying to take pics one at a time, I always press the button too early or too late and miss the firework.

*In fairness, my idea of a "good photo" of a firework display and a truly good photo are probably differing. Haha

This is a different kind of 4th for us our kids won't be home and it's a beautiful day here, so we are working in the yard and cleaning house and making potatoe salad and bbq for dinner. This is the first holiday i had off in 5 years but, is just a day off for me so taking pictures of the morning and the day and maybe the crazies here at night lol.

Fireworks pictures are actually pretty simple if you have a tripod or can set your camera down somewhere. Just put your camera into manual mode, adjust your shutter speed to be slow and your aperture small (f/16 or somewhere there abouts). This is basically the same way you take photos of lightning. Set your camera down and set the self timer so you won't get any motion blur from pushing the shutter button. Now the camera will be taking a long exposure so you are likely to capture a couple of fireworks bursts in one shot which makes the photo look better. I have a pocket camera with a manual mode and was able to get good shots that way last year, so you don't HAVE to have a DSLR, just access to manual mode and the ability to set your own exposure. Google for more detailed instructions, there are a lot of good tutorials out there.

Here's a shot with my pocket camera last year. No tripod, I just balanced the camera on the arm of my camp chair.

And with my DSLR a few years back:



A word of caution though. Don't forget to quit messing around with the camera and enjoy the show.