Fireworks

So okay it wasn't my Fourth to have the girls, but the artist formerly known as Frau Lobster asked if I wanted to keep them long enough to do a pool trip with Mo. Mo hasn't been since she burned her hands, between needing to heel and the long rainy spell.

Em escaped down the street, but me and Mo did plenty of water sliding and lazy riverring and just plain swimming.



At one point, she seemed to realize she hadn't just swam since last summer. She's getting stronger at it, faster with her dog paddle, but she's also started figuring out a pretty effective back stroke. I tried to outrun her, 'catch Daddy' and swimming away and she can close on me pretty quick. She thinks it's funny, too.



Then, when I went to see the city fireworks display in the evening, I was setting up my chair when the ex waved me over. I hadn't realized, but they were only three parking slots away. So we watched the display in that bizarrely modern extended family: Mom, Dad, Stepdad, kids. This doesn't seem weird to me, maybe because my Mom sometimes comes to holiday meals at my Dad and Stepmom's house and they've been divorced longer than they were married.



I also got to try out my new camera on fireworks, a notoriously hard to photograph subject. I really struggled last year to get a decent shot at all. By the time the Plaza Lighting came, I was able to get some fair shots using the camera's 'fireworks' scenic setting.



This time, I went for a manual exposure. F8.0 (the narrowest aperture for the greatest depth of field), a two second shutter (reeeeaaaal slow), the ISO locked down at 80. I used my handy dandy tripod, no way I can hold a camera still for two seconds. I set the camera to do three shot bursts, because fireworks are also tricky to time.

I won't say you couldn't get better results with a better camera and some good glass, but I think I did okay for a semi-inexpensive pocket camera.



The display had a short finale, and everyone seemed to be unsure the show was over. For a Podunk town, we usually put on a good display. Not Phillie, D.C. or NYC caliber, but a good one.

Then, after people had gotten into their cars and started to leave, another burst came on. Then, after a too-long pause, another burst.




Technical difficulties much?