Convenience photography (photos of 1/1/07 fireworks @ spaceneedle)
I've realized that at the moment I'm into "convenience photography". What does that mean? It means that I'm into photography - but I don't really go out of my way to get a better shot or overly delay myself or my travelling companions. Unless one of them happens to also be whereever we are for the purpose of taking pictures.
Why do I say this? This past NYE we played it low key - had a few friends over and then went to the parking lot next door to see the fireworks from the space needle. It was a great clear view of the needle and fireworks for a person. For a camera though, there were a few obstructions that definitely detract from the pictures (mainly a telephone wire / powerline that is in front of part of the needle). BUT - I wasn't motivated enough to find a better spot (which likely would have meant going off by myself or trying to convince everyone else to move too). Anyway, at the moment (1/2/07 @8am) there's only one picture that I've uploaded - it was cropped a bit, but that's just to remove some trees that don't add anything or block anything. It does still keep the wire I was talking about though :(.
Other notes from the shoot:
- I used the main lens I've been using - the 24-105 lens. For fireworks on the needle I probably could & should have used a longer zoom since I basically knew where the bursts were going to be and so did not need to worry about just opening up for the whole sky.
- It's not in the pictures, but there's a streetlight just off to the right of the location at roughly the same height as the camera was. I'm suprised that I didn't pick up more light from it - either way, I would use a lens hood next time if I was shooting from the same spot.
- I accidentally had the remote for the camera set on a few second delay so it was there was a lag between pressing the button and the shutter actually opening. I don't think it hurt me too much, but for something as fast as fireworks it did alter the shot I thought I was going to be getting a couple of times.
- A tripod is a definite must for shooting fireworks.
The full gallery is online here, I'll be adding to it as I clean up and crop some of the photos.