I scouted out the Lincoln Memorial Steps as a good location earlier in the day. We returned about 3 hours before the fireworks and another photographer told me they were kicking off photographers with tripods on the steps. I wasnt sure if this was true or not, but he was clearly peeved, so it was probably true. I decided not to bust out the tripod until after the fireworks actually started, by then all eyes would be on the sky. I also planned to not open it taller than 2.5 feet as to not attract attention. Made friends with the family in front of us and they co-operated with the positioning of their children for optimal shooting. (I was shooting over the kids’ heads as they were shorter).
It was unreal how many people saw the 1′ x 1′ open space in front of me and tried to sit exactly on that spot. We had to fight tooth and nail to prevent this from happening, and turned away at least 5 groups who were trying to claim it. “I have kids coming” which is technically true, just probably not for a few more years.
The place was ridiculously packed. It took about 2 hours to get on the metro after. I think this proves it was worth it! Im convinced that f11 & ISO 200 was money, shutter speeds varied greatly. Ill be posting tips on some of the techniques I used.
More Coming! Hope you guys dont get bored with these 🙂
This one below was a close second to being my favorite (the first is my fav). Hard to believe this is real, but yes, the explosions were happening right above the water there, so the Washingtom Monument makes a great backdrop. I knew that if I wanted this effect I would have to shoot from near the top of the Lincoln Memorial. My dream location would be over Lincolns shoulder, as if he is watching, but this probably isnt going to happen anytime soon. 🙂 
Take a close up look at base of the Washington Monument below. All those white dots, are camera flashes firing, which absolutely helps in no way whatsoever with firework photography. 🙂 The bluish dots in the foreground again are camera LCDs. 
There are only so many you can take without them starting to look the same. If you look on the green shot above, you should see some hints as to what is going on here. The video should explain it in the 2nd, “advanced” part. Very good stuff. Will try to have it up as soon as possible. 
AWESOME!!!! Great shot Michael.
Thanks! I had to crop this a little, but if you look at the bottom left hand corner, you see all those white dots? Those are all LCD’s of cameras. There was a sea of them.
Totally amazing shot!
Nice shot Michael.
Sweet shot Michael!
Impressive.
Holy cow, Mike! That is so awesome! Absolutely gorgeous! Maybe one of these days I’ll learn more about photography.
Fantasticly coolness! Awesome work Michael…!
Those are beautiful!
I am so glad you did this! They are fabulous. Our show was canceled and rescheduled for after a September Monster Truck Rally due to all-day rain and low hanging clouds. 🙁 So I will enjoy yours. We did go July 3rd to a Balloon Glow. I’ll send pictures.
Wassup ya’ll!!!! This is kind of an off question but would anyone here know how to focus effectively in a low-light environment? It doesn’t matter if it is manual focus technique, but I’ve been wondering about this for quite some time now – and the above pictures kind of reminded me of this question. The shot I have in mind is kind of a night portrait shot at the beach where there is very minimal lighting (before you actually trigger an off camera flash).
There are several tricks. If it is very far away, set your lens to infinity. If closer as you ask, you can hit your modeling light on the speedlite or just use a flash light on your subject, get a focus lock (I like to do it with Live View) and then flip the lens switch to manual. 🙂
Incredible !
Awesome!!! I actually thought about the flash light thing but wasn’t sure if it’s going to work. Thanks Michael. Oh and did you hear from your people about the Speedlite DVD yet? I will be one of the first to order it!!!! And good luck on the Wedding DVD. I’m going to get that one too!!!
we have heard back from them twice. Because of the amount of information on the DVD, it can be a little tricky to get the layer breaks right, so we have had to remaster the disks a couple times. We got a yellow light today, hoping for the final approval and delivery date tomorrow. Much of the marketing is all set, and the store is all set, all I need is a final yes and pre-orders will be available. I thank everyone for their patience! 🙂
Bored? These are anything but boring Michael…pretty much totally fantastic…I really need to try to get to DC next year for the 4th…
These look really nice. Even I was able to get some cool shots for the 4th july fireworks. As you said, f11 and ISO 200 really works.
AWESOME!!!
Insanly Awesome:)
awesome images!