I thought I would post something different today, something related to a passion of mine: photography. While I have always enjoyed taking photos, my love for photography grew even more when I purchased my first dSLR camera in May, 2008 (a Nikon d40X). I loved this little camera! Last year, I decided to purchase a new camera to give me more flexibility and options. So, in the middle of December, 2010, I purchased my Nikon d7000. I love this camera! There is sooooo much to learn on it though.
I take a lot of photos each day. Last year, I completed my first 365 Challenge (a photo a day for 365 days). This year, I am completing my second 365 Challenge. It’s going well, and I haven’t missed a day, but I am behind on getting my photos uploaded to the web (darn Twitter).
Every summer, Vancouver hosts a fireworks show called the Celebration of Light. Each year, countries come together in a competition to see who puts on the best fireworks show of the summer. In the past, this has taken place over three days: each of the three countries got their own evening of fireworks and on the final day, they put on a show together. After the final show, a winner is announced. This year, they are still three countries presenting, but they will do this over three evenings. There will not be a final show where they come together as a group. It’s always a great time and we look forward to it every year. This is the 21st year of this event and I think my husband and I have been to many of the shows, almost every year. We missed the year our daughter (our first born) was 7 months old because we didn’t think she’d handle it too well). We’ve since learned that kids can sleep through anything – including fireworks. Really!
On Saturday, July 30, we watched a fabulous show put on by China. I thought I would share some of the photos I took last night of the fireworks show presented by Spain. I hope you enjoy them! Click on the photo if you’d like to see it larger.
I feel so fortunate to live in such a wonderful city! Canada will be performing on Saturday, April 6. Looking forward to another wonderful show!
It's All About Learning 
You are doing a great job with this Blog, Tia. I have become a bit discouraged because the only comments I receive are from bots selling something… I guess I have to get better at writing!
Thanks, Rick! I’ve enjoyed sharing my thoughts and learning. I don’t get that many comments either. It’s okay though. I’ll go check out your blog again!
Great photos Tia. Missed last night as I was in transit and I will be away for Saturdays. K
Really amazing photos. Fireworks are so difficult to shoot (and all my past experiences have ended in disappointment and frustration!) I just upgraded to the d7000 in May (from the d80) and LOVE it. also doing a 365 this year. and also have shot every day (though am behind in my uploading due to a 23 day trip across the US).
did you use a tripod for your fireworks? i’d be curious to hear what settings you found effective in shooting these shots.
Thanks for dropping by to visit. Yes, I used a tripod for the fireworks shots. Thanks for the compliments on them. I put my camera in manual everything for fireworks. I focused it to infinity. My iso was 100, I believe. My f-stop was 8-10?? You can check the exif data on flickr. I shoot fireworks in bulb mode with my remote to take the shot. I usually just click the remote once for the shot to start and then I vary how long it is open for, before I click for the camera to finish taking the shot. I hope this makes sense to you.
Tonight’s fireworks pics were an epic failure. I didn’t focus on infinity for some reason and all my shots came out blurry. What a disappointment. I also had something on my lens – didn’t check that before I started shooting. Oh well.
Happy shooting!