No Fireworks? Not In These New July 4th Photos:

I posted some new fireworks photos yesterday, those images were the main goal when I set out on my hike on the 4th. However, I also ended up with some really cool photos that didn't have any fireworks in them.

This photo below was shot just before the fireworks started. There were a lot of boats on Donner Lake and a lot of extra folks in town so there were more lights along the shore than usual. It was also a more balanced light situation compared to the extreme light/exposure differences that the bright fireworks create. Fireworks photos can be challenging, this was a bit easier.

Shot on a Canon 5DS R with a 24-105mm lens set at 60mm. ISO 400, a lens aperture of f/4.0, and it was a 8 second long exposure on a tripod. 8 seconds is a bit too long for a fireworks show in my opinion as too many bursts happen in that much time which can be too bright and create overexposure.

Ok, the shot below is also the reason why I picked this view as there are many similar views to the photo above that require much less hiking. I have shot this view below previously, it is worth the 30 minute fairly steep uphill hike with a 38 pound backpack on. It's a spot where you can see Old Hwy 40 winding up the mountain above Donner Lake and Truckee, California (on the left).

The Milky Way was unfortunately hidden by the clouds, but for some reason the clouds were reflecting a warm/pink color. I tried to "fix" it in Photoshop but it didn't look right. That's the color the camera was picking up during the long exposures.

The lights along the windy road are created by traffic leaving Donner Lake after the fireworks show. I've only seen Old Hwy 40 get that much traffic at night after 4th of July fireworks shows. And sadly, the fireworks haven't happened for a couple years so this is a rare look. If you look closely on the right, you can see Donner Summit Bridge (aka Rainbow Bridge or Old Hwy 40 Bridge).

Also shot on a Canon 5DS R but with a 16-35mm lens, set at 16mm. This one is a bit tricky at it is actually 13 vertical photos, stitched together to create a very wide angle and very high resolution image (11248x7499 pixels). The ISO for each image was 800, the lens aperture was f/2.8, and the shutter speed was 6 seconds for each exposure.

I tried stitching the images together in Photoshop but it had a hard time and of lot of the road did not have the lights on it. I then tried PTGui but I had an older version, it was struggling a bit too and didn't look right. So I then purchased the latest version of PTGui and success! It worked great. I'm usually pretty happy with that program for stitching together panoramic photos but I feel like I should have updated to the latest version a while ago...

Thanks for looking and I hope you are all having a great day!

Scott Thompson
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com