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Fireworks by the Sierra Nevada

Eastern Sierra fireworks, Mammoth lakes, California.

Independence Day fireworks at Crowley Lake, near Mammoth Lakes, California.

Independence Day fireworks last Thursday at Crowley Lake, near the town of Mammoth Lakes in the Eastern Sierra region of California.  For this image, three exposures were combined using the free StarStaX app, one image for the starry background and two for the fireworks.

Exposure of the fireworks:
5 seconds at f/16, ISO 640

Search this blog for “how to” articles on how to photograph fireworks!

If you’re thinking of seeing this year’s fireworks at Crowley Lake, you can stop by the Visit Mammoth and Mono County Tourism sites to get some ideas for other great things to do in the area while you’re up there: visit Mono Lake, the historic Wild West ghost town of Bodie, explore Devil’s Postpile National Monument… there’s so much to do, you might need a week or two!

Blog: www.JeffSullivanPhotography.com/blog
Prints: www.JeffSullivan.smugmug.com

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59 thoughts on “Fireworks by the Sierra Nevada”

  45. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    Actually no Photoshop was used +Colin Hassell, I do have Photoshop Elements v10 that I use for saving and cropping screen captures, but it was not used on this image.  

    The elements of this image are realistic, but they're misaligned.  I combined three images in the StarStaX app to merge the background exposure with two fireworks images.

    I had left the camera alone shooting with an intervalometer during the fireworks in case I wanted to create a time-lapse video of the entire event, so I didn't notice that I had reframed the scene right after the fireworks started.  So the twilight image taken just before the fireworks started, before I knew where they'd be, no longer lined up.  Knowing that the composition had stayed the same during the fireworks, assuming it had been the same for the immediately previous shot was a simple oversight on my part. 

    I did also capture a couple of images afterwards as well to capture the sky, and they line up with the fireworks shots, but immediately after the fireworks hundreds of people turned on their car headlights to drive out, so the extra light takes viewer attention away from the fireworks.  Here's a composite with that matching background: https://plus.google.com/photos/107459220492917008623/albums/5897918794370024737/5897918800808400002?pid=5897918800808400002&oid=107459220492917008623

    I probably could correct for the focal length change and the misalignment and re-do this composite using Photoshop layers, but I prefer to do things in-camera whenever possible.  

    Fireworks are much brighter than the surrounding night sky, so a fireworks-only exposure tends not to accurately reflect the experience onsite, since I could see the silhouette of the Sierra Nevada and the starry sky.  Therefore a merged shot bringing the sky and mountains into the scene (as they were seen onsite) using a more sensitive exposure improves the realism… when the two exposures are properly lined up.

  52. Jeff Sullivan
    Reply

    I time-shifted multiple shots +Kenny Huffman, one right before the fireworks and two during, combining the three in the StarStaX app.  Unfortunately I didn't notice that I had changed the focal length while shooting, so the fireworks don't actually line up exactly where they exploded as I had intended.

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