Booming And Zooming

As I begin to put the finishing touches on the 2105 summer fireworks season, here's an extra focus-zoom shot that I took.  I started to play with the focus-zoom technique during the fireworks display by China because smoke had ended up blocking the view of the explosions.  As a quick reminder, focus-zooming happens when  you focus on a certain spot, and turn the zoom ring in and out as the photograph is being taken.  I decided to continue using the technique the next week during the fireworks display by the USA.  My little experiment never made it to a third week though as after taking this shot I failed to properly recompose and scrapped several photos before noticing my mistake.  Still, despite the lost photographs, I still came home with several good ones, and I really like this one as well.  This photograph was taken at f/16, 14sec, ISO 100 at 35mm.  I thought it was cool how the top of the firework explosion didn't seem to be very disturbed by the pulling and pushing of the light, while the cool designs happened near the bottom.  It's a fun technique to try, but make sure to pay attention to what you're doing so that you don't ruin the shots you were originally there to take.