I took some video from my living room during one of the more scenic of the 346 storms of the last week or so. I was just watching it on my TV, and, using the none-too-steady pause control and my none-too-professional cellphone camera, took some pix off the screen of these bolts out of the blue:


 


 


 



Tomorrow night is the best "at-home" photo night of the year - the Hackensack fireworks are right outside that same window......... and VERY CLOSE.

Plus, I'll be able to see the Macy's fireworks on the Hudson River. I can sometimes see them even when they're on the other side of Manhattan on the East River, so this should be spectacular!


Ever see fireworks on BOTH rivers simultaneously?


 


I aimed this 1985 shot at the southern tip of Manhattan from Jersey City, NJ - Hudson River and Empire State Building on the left, East River and Brooklyn Bridge on the right. In between is the World Trade Center. And in between the towers is a full moon rising.

If you want to read something really freaky about this shot, go to my site and enter 18-001 in the search box.


AND HAVE A GREAT 4TH!



.

Very.



Very.




COOL!

Thank you, ma'am.


Well, I learned tonight that not only are cell phones NOT great for fireworks pictures:


 


 


but they're REALLY bad from 10 Miles away! (These are the Macy's fireworks):


 


 


However, while I was taking these, I was also running video and shooting with my grownup camera and they're much better (I hope).

BTW - if you strain your eyeballs, you can sorta make out the Empire State Building in red, white, and blue to the left.



.

Yeah, the video came out much better (it couldn't be much worse), so I did the cell-off-the-TV bit again. Since they were so close, I could zoom in on the explosions (8X optical zoom).


 

 

 

 



You saw how far away the Macy's fireworks were with the cell - not so with the vid cam. I have an add-on 12X lens that MULTIPLIES the optical magnification to 96X! This image was of ONE of the six barges on the Hudson River from 10 miles or so away:



 


This is my favorite stretch of shooting all year. I'm not that high up - only 7 floors - but over the course of 5 days, I got to see the fireworks of close to two dozen towns from home.

The grownup camera shots may take a while because I still shoot slides. If anything comes out decent, I'll post them.



.

Remember these cell phone shots from 10 miles away?

BobLHead wrote:

(These are the Macy's fireworks):

Here's a picture of the same fireworks taken with my grownup camera and a 500mm lens:

Spoiler (Click here to reveal) :

Yowzuh!

.

Beautiful!!!