Sonoma County Sunset

It was the 4th of July and we went on a hike with the Land Paths organization. It was a great view of Sonoma County just above the fair grounds for fireworks! I know I know.. The 4th of July was 3 weeks ago, however; I've been busy trying to win the Nor Cal photo contest! No no no.. I didn't win. Congratulations to the winners.

I revisited the the shots from the beginning of the month to be sure that there wasn't anything I needed to work on. To my surprise there were a few things that I did indeed need to work on. To the left you'll see a sunset that I recently submitted to another contest (figures are crossed). There is also a water tower that I shot on the way up to our vantage point for fireworks.

The fireworks show was really good! However; shooting down on fireworks presents the problem of street lights. While I didn't like my location for the fireworks show, I decided to use some out of focus focus, and really just do some trial and error shooting.

I found out that a decent depth of field of f11 or f16 with shutter speeds ranging from 2-15 seconds works great! My next fireworks show will be better planned as far as location, and shooting position to add a bit of depth to my photos. Possibly placing something in the foreground, or something interesting that gets lit up by the explosions over head.

Below is a slide show of what I came up with. Enjoy!

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