Fireworks in Parkville

2008 Parkville Fireworks 007
Originally uploaded by Chris in KC

The family and I cruised down to Parkville, Missouri to see their show this year. We have been there several times before and they always put on a good show.
This is not my first year photographing fireworks, but it is my first year with a DSLR and a decent set of lenses. In one way, that actually worked against me. I started out with my Tamron 70-200, but because we were so close to the fireworks, 70mm was not wide enough. I quickly switched over to my Tamron 28-300, but that also did not prove wide enough. I finally settled on my Tamron 17-50, and this was wide enough for all the shots. I think it is better to be too wide, because you can crop in on the shots that are not tight enough, but you can't ever add to a photograph where part of the fireworks were cut off.

All shots were taken at ISO 100, f/16, and I used a bulb mode with a remote shutter release to take 3-5 second exposures. Next year I want to find someplace to shoot more landscape style shots. I would like some kind of background (maybe Royals Stadium) with the fireworks going off above.

Here are the best of the shots I got this year.