Note: This article is designed to be seen best on a desktop computer, because the graphics are cut off on smaller displays.

Last night after much weather debating in my head, I wrangled my gear and trotted off to capture the town’s fireworks at the local lake. We were supposed to have thunder storms, but that never happened. I feel bad for the neighboring towns that cancelled their shows because of the errant weather predictions. I really didn’t want to go alone to shoot, because if I have to run to the car, I hate leaving expensive things unprotected, but no one with which I spoke wanted to join me. It took me three trips to the car to set everything up, but luckily few people had arrived yet.

I had spoken with the Dept. of Public Works in town to make sure setting up camera equipment was ok, because they are doing work on the water main in that part of town. I also talked with the police department who had kindly given me NO PARKING cones to put down, so that I’d be sure to have a place to park. Parking for the high school hill’s fireworks is at a premium, all over town. That turned out to be a bad joke though, because some assholes moved the cones and parked in the spot I had marked out.

Fireworks in Needham, MA are legendary. The show was always amazing and full of surprises. The town basically doubles in size during the July “4th” fireworks. We always have ours the night before Boston has their big firework show, so it’s usually on July 3rd. The fireworks are organized by the Needham Exchange Club, not the town.

Last year I started shooting at Chamber’s Cove, which is a small parking lot on the side of Rosemary Lake. It’s just a teeny park that is good for watching the lake wildlife. It doesn’t attract crowds because it’s about 3/4 of a mile from the main fireworks launch site at the high school. The lot fills up during the fireworks with nearby residents.

This year, I met another photographer, a college student, so I wasn’t completely alone while shooting. While setting up I contacted my friend in Denver who helped me last year, via Facebook. We tried to voice, but it didn’t work quite right. Next, I noticed that one of the two photographers on Clubhouse, who had helped me figure out exactly how to set up the camera was also on FB. I messaged him for help and stuck the phone in my bra while he reiterated his instructions. When I retrieved my phone, there was his face looking up at me! I guess my breast dialed him, heh. Considering he’s in Perth Australia, the phone connection was amazing. So, we spent 1/2 hour on the phone trying to set up my camera, which was on a tripod, with no remote, so I could shoot the fireworks as best as possible. By the way, the equipment I used was a Nikon D500 and a Sigma 10-20mm lens, which I’d gotten for free from the recycle building at the town dump. I’d never used the Bulb setting on my camera, so that was an interesting learning experience! THANK YOU Jon!!

I quickly realized that I couldn’t get the whole firework and the reflection in one shot with a horizontal view, so I flipped the camera sideways. Thanks to my stuck tripod, that meant I had to shoot from a lunge position, while paying close attention to my breathing, so as not to shake the camera. It became an exercise session as well as a shoot! Needless to say, I was exhausted when I got home 3 hours later.

The student photographer and I had a running commentary throughout the whole 1/2 hour show, which I enjoyed. He was using a Nikon D3400, but I never got the lens specs. After the show, hundreds of people walked by on their way home, so I waited to break down.

Once home, I logged into Clubhouse to talk to some of my photographer friends that often gather in there. They were neck deep in an editing conversation and sharing shots on a Discord server. Each person uploaded a RAW file and everyone took at stab at editing the shot. So, I uploaded a couple of my shots for folks to tackle. It’s informative and fun to see how someone else edits your shots. The results of edits by Alex Butler and Jon L. Miller are shown below.

Alex chose to zoom in and darken the photo. I think he used CaptureOne to edit. I really like this edit! John Miller chose to use two of my shots and create a composite image in Photoshop. People on my post in the Needham Facebook feed seem to like this edit below the best! While Alex and I chose to try and hide the recreation building on the edge of the lake, Jon chose to make it an integral part of the photograph.

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