I’m so BUMMED!!!! I worked on this post on the 3rd and set it to go live for all of you for the 4th, but it didn’t-which is totally weird. I’m so sorry! While we were gearing up for our BBQ, I even thought, ‘I should check the blog and make sure the fireworks tips went live.’ But then I forgot. Oh man, I’m so sorry you guys! I’m going to go ahead and post it now, but I truly apologize!! Maybe you have some leftover sparklers so you can still try the photography tip….

Hope you all had a great 4th! We have a friend here from out of town, and the kids did their lemonade stand. Can’t wait to show you the fun pics. Much love and have a great weekend!

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It’s that time of year again!

Time to drag your tripod out of the closet and blow some dust off it! 🙂 When taking pictures of fireworks, your tripod is your best friend. BUT…having said that I do know some photographers who held their camera in between their knees and just held super still. 🙂

Key things to remember tonight when taking pictures of the fireworks.

1. Set your camera on Manuel Mode. (don’t be nervous, you can do this!)

2. Set your ISO down to 100. This way you get maximum color saturation. Since the ISO will be so low, you’ve got to have that tripod set up or strong thighs.

3. Put your aperture/Fstop at F11 or F16. Having lots of blur isn’t important for these types of pictures. We want detail, detail, detail!

4. Put your camera on Evaluative Metering so your color and light is metered throughout your whole frame. Thus, enhancing the color everywhere.

5. Slow your shutter speed way down. Take a deep breath, relax and just play around with different speeds. Start with a slow shutter speed of 3 seconds. When the fireworks go off, push your shutter release button down and wait for the image to record 3 seconds of the light. Then when the shutter closes (you’ll hear it close), look at the back of camera and and see if your image is bright enough. If it’s to dark, slow your shutter speed down a little more. Maybe try 4 seconds.

Last year, Jennifer Macniven sent me this AWESOME photo! Any of you remember this? It’s hard to believe I had yet to meet Jen in person. But since then she’s come to our workshops, attended our PUG meetings and started her photography business! She recently launched her own beautiful website and blog. Check em out!

If taking pictures of fireworks stresses you out, try my Sparklers exercise with your kids! FYI, you’ll want to scroll down to PART 2 of the Sparkler blog post. This exercise is SUPER fun for both you and the little ones!

For more fun photography exercises, check out our popular DVD series, Refuse to Say Cheese and Beyond the Green Box!