Whether shooting for the media or your family, there are some events you must record every week, month or year-- birthdays, anniversaries, holidays. The fireworks on the Fourth of July is one of those. But how do you capture a fresh look every time? You want something new, different and interesting, but not so unusual that the subject is obscured because of the picture's uniqueness.
At the same time, remember what one of my mentors once said -- "Excellence is always excellent." Meaning, of course, that's if it's a terrific picture, it'll be terrific again next time, and on and on...
Since Jason Plotkin was scheduled to photograph fireworks Saturday night, I was free to experiment, to look around for possibilities. And if nothing worked, it didn't matter. Jason's got it covered.
There was no one watching the fireworks from the overpass at Penn Street Street as I had seen once before (railroad tracks and silhouettes), so I moved to Kiwanis Lake, hoping for reflections. Trees there hid most of the color.
Rushing across the street was an intersection where the stream of car lights on the ground added color to the fireworks in the sky.
Don't think it worked-- too much of a stretch. Maybe shot from a higher vantage point would have shown the car lights better, and that would have helped. Jason's photo on C1 of the York Daily Record was excellent and that's good.
The next time I'm scheduled, I know three places from which NOT to shoot.
That's one thing that I've read about National Geographic photographers, they spend most of their time studying an area WAY before they click the shutter. The purposely find the places that don't work and take note of them. Hey, there's always next year. I myself want to find a different vantage point for the fireworks at Long's Park.