I was invited to shoot the Blair Fireworks again from wherever I wanted to, if I wanted. Big thanks to Terry Hansen for that, and the crew for creating such a great show. After seeing the wiring a little closer this year, it has to be a chore to put together. I about didn't go, but at the last minute decided I would. I recently learned how to set the camera up so that it would fire away on its own. It's really simple, put it on continuous shooting mode, then just lock the cable release button in. I could now get more of the shot I wanted to get last year, if I was willing to leave my camera where I did. I wanted to use the 10mm wide angle view, tilted vertically, and get the shells leaving the tubes and blowing up in the air. I sort of got it last year, but I wanted the tubes to be much larger in the frame. Only way to do that and get the explosions above is be much closer and be ultra wide. So the idea of doing it much closer got the better of me, so I went up and did it. I get there, thinking I could possibly leave the camera horizontal/landscape and set it very low next to the trailer. That just didn't look like it would work once I was there. Plus there are tubes placed all over the place. I was quickly perplexed on what the hell to do with it, where to put it. I knew I wanted the main, big trailer, but which side. I was then informed the one half would be mostly finale, as well as the mortars set up near that side. So that made it a pretty easy choice on where to set it.....the other side of the trailer. I wasn't sold on the finale looking too great with a set exposure for the rest of the show(thinking the finale madness would blow it all out). So I didn't want any of that side. So on the other side I got the main trailer and another set of several tubes. There was a light south wind, forecast to increase a little after dark(at least the RUC model said so, switching it from se to s). Since there were tubes all over the place up there, I figured it probably didn't matter where I set the thing anyway. Where I leave it winds up in the worst hot amber stream there would be, lol. Half way through the show I look over there to see what was happening, and was like, oh crap. I knew the risks though, and figure go big or go home...even if its $1700 in gear sitting there. (Of course "go big or go home" thinking got me this earlier in the year) Getting the pictures most others get doesn't thrill me in the least. Of course I often do, but when I can get something else different, I'm sure as hell going to try. This location would capture the violence/chaos there is around those tubes. I've shot the other angles before, I really wanted to try this one.     So this is where I placed my camera, maybe 10 feet away. I placed it as close as I could while still getting that whole trailer and the other whole stack of tubes. 10mm on my camera gives a 107 degree angle view. So if the ground is at the bottom of the frame, straight up is 90 degrees. It seemed like a lot of the balls arced out of the frame anyway. Well that and there were a ton of other mortar tubes up there in other locations. I lost count of the times I was asked if I really wanted to leave my camera there, lol. My thought after last year was maybe they'd let me put on a fire suit and let me sit here and shoot it. After seeing a couple low ones go off, the fire suit seems like a bad idea. Just glad I figured out the continuous shoot thing recently(figured out for the star trail photos just a week before). So camera 1 would be here for the show. I have another rebel I thought about bringing for this. I blew off the idea and thought I'd just sit and watch while my camera did its thing. Kevin though, one of the crew, had his Rebel XTi with and offered it to me to use. He even had another 10-22 EF-s lens like I had on mine! I kept just saying probably not, though I'm not sure why. He'd then say he'd leave it there incase I changed my mind. I finally decide, yeah I'll use it! I'm really glad he had that up there now and that I used it while mine was capturing the show from ground zero. Thanks man! It makes me want to get an XTi now though.     So this shot was taken with Kevin's Rebel XTi + Canon EF-s 10-22mm. That's the crew behind their table they had set up with control stuff...show about to start. I actually just got back over here after starting my camera. I messed with the thing for like 10 minutes in the dark making sure it was exactly how I wanted it and with things set right. I just about forgot it was on 1600 ISO. I was using that to frame it. I then had to make sure it was on 10 second shots, wide open, focus on manual to infinity and on continuous shooting mode...then be sure to lock the cable release down as I walked away from it, only a couple minutes before the show would start. Mike, another crew member, was a big help in all that. I had to make sure someone was with me so I knew when I could be where. He took me over there and held the flashlight while I tweaked the camera angle over and over. If your tilt is off it's easy enough to correct later when it is horizontal. In vertical, any tilt is exaggerated. You fix it later and wind up losing a lot of the image to cropping. So I wanted that to be right, and to have the camera as close as I could, while still getting them all in there. Then I'm also on a small hill, so the tripod legs couldn't be even and have a stable camera. I also wasn't sure how much of the fire coming out of the tubes would get in the shot of the explosions up above(that was another big argument against being right next to the trailer shooing up horizontally instead of an added couple feet and vertically). Oh, and I settled on F10 for the aperture...and 100 ISO of course.

Lets get this party started! Camera 1.

Camera 2.

When looking at these I feel the need to pull a Beavis - "fire fire".

This one went off a hair low, but not as low as the one later, which about ended the life of my camera, camera 1.

All the people you will see are pyro crew memebers or friends of the pyro crew. The audience is down in the bowling alley parking lot or the side streets...or anywhere around town. There is zero doubt where the best seat is though :) . Up there can't be beat.

If a camera can have a "blast" mine was having one right now.

"Fire fire!" (Sorry, there will be more of those outbursts)

I'm sure I still hadn't noticed the hot amber train going onto my camera yet.

I have probably included too many pictures for this. There's no need for this one, but I noticed the "A". There's a "Nike swoosh" on another one. The "A" is a chair.

I should have checked the lens on this camera as evidently there was something on it. They don't show up on too many of the images anyway. I just wish I had thought to look first. Hell I felt like I didn't know what I was doing as I ran around trying to shoot. Higher ISO's would help show the people, but not do the fireworks any favors. Each time I'd lower the ISO I'd have dimmer people. So the whole show I was constantly changing it around. That and tilting it vertically and back all the time.

Back to ground zero.

Pretty cool wind flow pulling back up with the explosions.

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