God Bless America.

In celebration of the 4th of July, The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA holds an annual fireworks celebration entitled, "AmericaFest." I had never been the Rose Bowl, not for a concert, football game, et al. I was excited to enjoy the atmosphere and also make my very first attempt at photographing fireworks.

It's hard to go to a celebration for the USA without thinking about the imperfections and foibles of our Union. I won't digress but I'll just say that it's not easy being an American right now (has it ever been?) I pray that somehow, a collective sense of humanity sweeps over our nation. It's hard to move forward collectively when there's not a shared sense of humanity among all people.

Anyway, let me get away from that train of thought immediately and go back to the enjoyment of the art. Again, I attended AmericaFest 2017 to enjoy some fireworks, and the challenge and excitement of capturing them with a new camera, at a famous venue that literally down the street. There was a Beatles cover band which I did not photograph, because I was too far away. Also, before the fireworks, there were three stunt motorcyclist and you better believe I photographed them:

Lastly, there was the main event, a fantastic firework show and as a photographer it was too fun.

I've seen beautiful fireworks photography before and imagined a lot of very clear clean and bright images of starbursts, but...my images weren't exactly like that. Rarely are things perfect on the first try with Photography. You can know ISO, aperture, shutter speed and white balance all day, but trial and error is just a part of the process. What I learned from the night is how essential tripods and remote shutter can be, if want the cleanest fireworks shots. All that said, I still really loved what I was able to capture by hand: