Shooting Challenge: FIREWORKS!!!

The Fourth of July is tomorrow. And as usual, we'll celebrate our nation's independence (sorry international readers) by blowing up a small chunk of it. So get out your cameras and document the beautiful idiocy.

The Challenge

Capture a photo of fireworks.

The Technique

So, you have a TOUGH act to follow. Here's what you did in 2010.

As for HOW you did it. Check our tips in the original post. You don't want to be fiddling with aperture/ISO/shutter combinations during the festivities. Use the tutorials to come up with a baseline plan. Then tweak as necessary during our nation's celebratory attack on itself.

The Example

Shooting Challenge: FIREWORKS!!!

Our lead shot (cropped up top) is from our 2010 Fireworks Challenge by Ansel Santosa. I think it's one of my favorite photos, not just from Shooting Challenges, but that I've ever seen. Don't be afraid to work a bit of humanity into all of the explosions.

The Rules

1. Submissions need to be your own.
4. Email submissions to, not me.
6. One submission per person.

Send your best photo by Monday, July 9th at at 10AM Eastern to with "July4" in the subject line. Save your files as JPGs, and use a FirstnameLastnameJuly4.jpg (970px wide) and FirstnameLastnameJuly4Wallpaper.jpg (2560px wide) naming conventions. Include your shooting summary (camera, lens, ISO, etc) in the body of the email along with a story of the shot in a few sentences. And don't skip this story part because it's often the most enjoyable part for us all beyond the shot itself!
