Fireworks Pics

sandy saunders said:

An amazing set of photos, particularly as they are hand-held on a B
setting. Obviously not cold enough to get the shakes!

Thanks Sandy, but there is a bit of camera shake actually, rather a lot
in fact.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk
http://www.wildwales.fsnet.co.uk

In article <[email hidden]>, pvs1
@wildwales.fsnet.co.uk says...

Quoted message said:

Darren G said:

Quoted message said:

Erm, you missed it, it was last night! Now you'll have to wait
another year... :-)

in that case I must just have moved house to Iraq without realising,
as it's another war zone around here tonight.

Good for you.

Yes & no.

Quoted message said:

There's a few around here right now, but nothing like the
sheer quantity of last night, so there'd be sparse pickings around here
if I fancied doing it again. I had enough last night though, so I'm
relaxing tonight.

Is there enough quantity for you there? Visible rocket bursts from your
home? That was my staple diet last night.

not enough to do anything fancy without merging multilpe exposures, but
enough to have a play with it.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Hand holding allows swinging
around quickly to grab shots you'd otherwise miss, and of course
produces more arty effects,

Quoted message said:

It works! Gives far more interesting results than the tripod
approach.

So you've tried it then? Keep at it. Hope to see your results later.

had a quick go, decided it worked, and then someone decided to come and
visit me and disturb things. So I've given up on the idea for this
year! I've still got over 3 Gb of images to process from my hols, so I
can really do without anymore anyway!
--
Darren

Paul Saunders said:

Darren G said:

Nice work. I was wondering what to do tonight!

Erm, you missed it, it was last night! Now you'll have to wait another
year... :-)

Quoted message said:

Though I think I detected the odd bit of camera shake :-)

You reckon?

I've tried it both ways in the past. A tripod gives excellent results
of course (of the more traditional variety), but it limits your response
time dramatically. Hand holding allows swinging around quickly to grab
shots you'd otherwise miss,

You ought to try a gimbal mount to save your arms.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

Phil Cook said:

You ought to try a gimbal mount to save your arms.

Is that a tripod thingy? If so then it would still limit you to one
spot. I was moving around a lot to grab shots from different
directions. With various trees, buildings and streetlights around I
couldn't take them all from one spot, although I could have done for the
main display since I found a good viewpoint and they were all coming
from the same direction.

My arms were only a problem when I used the 1kg 400mm lens, there was no
strain with the standard zoom lens.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk
http://www.wildwales.fsnet.co.uk

"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
| The best of last night's marathon photo session;
| http://www.wildwales.fsnet.co.uk/misc/fireworks/fireworks.html
|
| For the benefit of those who won't see this link hidden in the Brecons
| thread.
|
| Paul

Thanks Paul, I'd passed over the Brecons thread completely.

Very nice photos, and thanks for sharing them. It shows what I missed out
on by staying at home! The photos don't even seem like fireworks, but
rather some arty abstract shots, if you know what I mean. I was surprised
to see that you used Bulb mode and no tripod, but it has worked quite well,
and I take your point about not knowing where the fireworks would go off
from, so bulb mode and hand-held meant you could react quickly.

I was surprised there were no 'sparklers shots' too! If you have any
cousins or other young relatives, give them a sparkler to wave about in the
dark, take a fancy photo of the trail, get their parents to sign a model
release form, and submit it to Alamy! ;-) ...though your brothers hand-held
missile launcher half made up for this! :-)

Ste

"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

<snip>

| although I could have done for the
| main display since I found a good viewpoint and they were all coming
| from the same direction.

Hi Paul, I was expecting just this sort of shot from you when you said you
were taking photos of fireworks. Now you've got the hand-held variety, your
mission (if you choose to accept it!) for New Year's Eve is to find some
local Welsh landmark that is guarenteed to have plenty of fireworks shooting
over it, and picture this! Should be a good one for any calendars you do
too.

| My arms were only a problem when I used the 1kg 400mm lens, there was no
| strain with the standard zoom lens.

Wimp! :-P

| Paul

Ste

In article <[email hidden]>, Stuart
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

What is the "B" setting, my camera doesn't seem to posses one! Does it allow
the shutter to be held open until the firework is finnished?

Quite right. It is a hang over from the "old" days of photography when
the shutter was operated by an airline. You pressed the rubber "Bulb" to
open the shutter , held it pressed and released it to close the shutter.
--
Bill Grey
http://www.billboy.co.uk

In article <[email hidden]>, u-r-walk@p-t-
cook.freeserve.co.uk says...

Quoted message said:

On Sat, 6 Nov 2004 15:20:19 -0000, Paul Saunders wrote:

You ought to try a gimbal mount to save your arms.

what you really need is one of those camera mounts used by film crews
that give a cushioned, body-mounted support that allow them to follow
the action and get a smooth shot.

[When I started this post I knew exactly what they were called but I'll
be "£$%^&*ed if I can remember the name of the damn thing now!]

--
Darren

Quoted message said:

Quite right. It is a hang over from the "old" days of photography when
the shutter was operated by an airline. You pressed the rubber "Bulb"
to open the shutter , held it pressed and released it to close the
shutter.

Ah! I was wondering about that. I thought it had something to do with
flash photography.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk
http://www.wildwales.fsnet.co.uk

ste© said:

Hi Paul, I was expecting just this sort of shot from you when you
said you were taking photos of fireworks. Now you've got the
hand-held variety, your mission (if you choose to accept it!) for New
Year's Eve is to find some local Welsh landmark that is guarenteed to
have plenty of fireworks shooting over it, and picture this!

No, I don't think I'll accept that one, sorry. What Welsh landmark is
guaranteed in that way? I don't know of any. I don't think there's any
official displays around on New Years Eve anyway, not around here.
There could be in theory, like maybe Caernarfon Castle, but I don't know
of any. Guy Fawkes Night would probably be a better bet anyway, but
official displays aren't necessarily anywhere near good landmarks.

Quoted message said:

Should
be a good one for any calendars you do too.

In theory yes, but it would probably be much easier to fake such a
photo.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My arms were only a problem when I used the 1kg 400mm lens, there
was no strain with the standard zoom lens.

Wimp! :-P

Try holding nearly 2kg at eye level for half an hour, then come back and
tell me what your arms feel like. :-)

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk
http://www.wildwales.fsnet.co.uk

ste© said:

Very nice photos, and thanks for sharing them. It shows what I
missed out on by staying at home! The photos don't even seem like
fireworks, but rather some arty abstract shots, if you know what I
mean.

Yep, I was very pleased with some of the more extreme arty shots, the
ones that you can't even tell are fireworks (I've got some other strange
ones that I didn't put on the page). Do you think there's a market for
selling this kind of "art"? Probably worth putting them on Alamy don't
you think?

Quoted message said:

I was surprised there were no 'sparklers shots' too! If you have any
cousins or other young relatives, give them a sparkler to wave about
in the dark,

What? You expect me to *buy* fireworks?

Quoted message said:

take a fancy photo of the trail, get their parents to
sign a model release form, and submit it to Alamy! ;-)

Nice idea, but I've done sparkler shots before and was never much
impressed with the results. I think a certain degree of skill is
necessary in the movement of the sparkler, perhaps writing words?

Quoted message said:

...though
your brothers hand-held missile launcher half made up for this! :-)

Yes, that was good, wasn't it? Do you think I should put that on Alamy?
I wouldn't need a model release for that, would I? He's not exactly
recognisable!

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk
http://www.wildwales.fsnet.co.uk

Darren G said:

what you really need is one of those camera mounts used by film crews
that give a cushioned, body-mounted support that allow them to follow
the action and get a smooth shot.

Hmm... Not entirely sure about that. That's more of a smooth movement
thing rather than a holding perfectly steady thing, isn't it? More
useful for video than stills I'd have thought. I wonder if an Image
Stabilisation lens would help?

Thing is, we're not talking about holding a camera steady with a slowish
shutter speed (like 1/30th or less), we're talking about very long
exposures. I'm not sure I'd want to attempt holding the camera
perfectly steady for 10 seconds, simpler to just put it on a tripod.

Besides, I wasn't really trying to hold it steady. I was usually just
holding the camera with arms outstretched, aiming in the right general
direction. I wasn't trying to brace it at all for most shots.

Thanks for the suggestion though. When I do want to brace the camera
without a tripod, I usually use a monopod, often combined with bracing
myself against another object like a tree or rock or whatever.

Paul
--
http://www.wilderness-wales.co.uk
http://www.wildwales.fsnet.co.uk

In article <[email hidden]>, pvs1
@wildwales.fsnet.co.uk says...

Quoted message said:

Darren G said:

what you really need is one of those camera mounts used by film crews
that give a cushioned, body-mounted support that allow them to follow
the action and get a smooth shot.

Hmm... Not entirely sure about that. That's more of a smooth movement
thing rather than a holding perfectly steady thing, isn't it? More
useful for video than stills I'd have thought.

I think you were taking me a little too seriously (& that doesn;t happen
often)

Quoted message said:

I wonder if an Image
Stabilisation lens would help?

Not sure the motor would cope with such a long exposure and the slower,
wider movements so well. I /think/ it is more designed to compensate
for minor shakes rather than real movement. And it would kill the
battery.

However if you have the cash it would be nice to try :-)

Quoted message said:

Thanks for the suggestion though. When I do want to brace the camera
without a tripod, I usually use a monopod, often combined with bracing
myself against another object like a tree or rock or whatever.

I've never really got on with monopods - always found that a v light
weight tripod is equally as heavy/light but more useful. And having
recently forgotten to take my tripod on holiday with me (I'm sure it was
in the car when we left but not at the airport) I found that a fleece
masquerading as a bean bag works quite well!

--
Darren

"Paul Saunders" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I was surprised there were no 'sparklers shots' too! If you have any
cousins or other young relatives, give them a sparkler to wave about
in the dark,

Quoted message said:

What? You expect me to *buy* fireworks?

When we moved our chemical store and had lots of dodgy looking stuff
probably dating back to the 1920s to dispose of I made an extremely
impressive firework by chucking about half a jam jar full of sodium in a
pond. Anyone who knows anything about sodium will realise half a jam jar
full is rather a lot.

In article <[email hidden]>, Paul Saunders
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

New
Year's Eve is to find some local Welsh landmark that is guarenteed to
have plenty of fireworks shooting over it, and picture this!

Pen-y-Fan ?...:-)

or... The DVLA building.
--
Bill Grey
http://www.billboy.co.uk

In article <[email hidden]>, Darren G
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

what you really need is one of those camera mounts used by film crews
that give a cushioned, body-mounted support that allow them to follow
the action and get a smooth shot.

Hydraulics behind this bit of kit I believe.
--
Bill Grey
http://www.billboy.co.uk

In article <[email hidden]>, Paul Saunders
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

hanks for the suggestion though. When I do want to brace the camera
without a tripod, I usually use a monopod, often combined with bracing
myself against another object like a tree or rock or whatever.

You have to when you've had a "few" :-)
--
Bill Grey
http://www.billboy.co.uk

In article <[email hidden]>, Paul Saunders
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Do you think there's a market for
selling this kind of "art"? Probably worth putting them on Alamy don't
you think?

Definitely - someone will want them for advertising perhaps.

They're certainly good enough.
--
Bill Grey
http://www.billboy.co.uk

I noticed that Message-ID:
<[email hidden]> from Darren G contained
the following:

Quoted message said:

what you really need is one of those camera mounts used by film crews
that give a cushioned, body-mounted support that allow them to follow
the action and get a smooth shot.

[When I started this post I knew exactly what they were called but I'll
be "£$%^&*ed if I can remember the name of the damn thing now!]

Steadycam.

Instructions on how to build your own here
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/

--
Geoff Berrow (put thecat out to email)
It's only Usenet, no one dies.
My opinions, not the committee's, mine.
Simple RFDs http://www.ckdog.co.uk/rfdmaker/

Darren G said:

In article <[email hidden]>, u-r-walk@p-t-
cook.freeserve.co.uk says...

Quoted message said:

On Sat, 6 Nov 2004 15:20:19 -0000, Paul Saunders wrote:

You ought to try a gimbal mount to save your arms.

what you really need is one of those camera mounts used by film crews
that give a cushioned, body-mounted support that allow them to follow
the action and get a smooth shot.

[When I started this post I knew exactly what they were called but I'll
be "£$%^&*ed if I can remember the name of the damn thing now!]

Steadicam.

A favoirite of Martin Scorsese for his long tracking shots. cf that
shot in Goodfellas where Henry Hill (Ray Liota) gets Karen (Lorraine
Bracco) into the show via the kitchens, all in one take.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"