With more than a year in the books for this project, it's interesting and exciting to do year over year (hilariously abbreviated to "YOY" in the business world) comparisons on big holidays like Independence Day.
Last year, I spent the 4th in Huntington Beach, capturing some of the hilarious antics of celebrants. Even though this year, I was largely less adventurous because of dealing with back/shoulder/neck pain from getting rear-ended, I still managed to get shots of some big booms for comparison and I can tell that both my technical skill and artistic eye have improved with some 140 hours under my belt more than I had this time last year. I was especially happy to see how sharp the pictures came out this year - I didn't own a tripod this time last year and managed to forget my tripod this year,
Last year:
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| Overexposed, shaky camera, and pretty terrible composition |
This year:
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| One of the images from this year - reminiscent of a dandelion seed head, but pink! |
I didn't get as many shots in and didn't get to take advantage of some of the patriotic subjects out there because of the pain, but I made the best of a bad situation (also not fun: abstaining from yummy drinks on a celebratory holiday since muscle relaxers means no alcohol) and think that as far as the images go, it was still a pretty successful day. It was especially fun experimenting with long exposures, people, and sparklers to get shapes from light. Definitely will replicate that experience with glow sticks the next chance I get.
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| Firework fountain on the street |
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| Long exposure with a sparkler. Will try glow sticks next to remove the weird hairy effect. |
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| Tail-end of some fireworks or distant galaxies? |
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| This and above tie for my favorite shots of the night.
I love how the fireworks light up behind the trees to form a silhouette. |
Active Shooting Hours: 1.5
Review Hours: 1