Sailfest Fireworks 2015

We returned from our annual visit to the USA two days ago.  I had not planned on doing to much traveling during this visit which turned out to be prophetic - my father died 16 days after our arrival.  We consider ourselves fortunate to have spent some time with him before he got sick and died.

One goal that I did have for our USA trip was to photograph the Sailfest Fireworks in my boyhood home of Groton on 11 July which turned out to be the night of my father's burial.  I had some new equipment along with some refined technique that I wanted to try out.

Eight days earlier I tried out the new equipment and refined technique to photograph the 75th year anniversary fireworks display for Ocean Beach Park in New London from Eastern Point Beach in Groton.  That trial run produced satisfactory results and increased my eagerness for the grand display associated with the annual Sailfest celebration.

Duang and I hiked from my parent's house to our favorite viewing location inside of Fort Griswold State Park.  Once again, I pointed out landmarks from my youth, my elementary school, my high school swim coach's home, the package store (liquor store) where I used a doctored-up ID, the location of my friend's pizza store, ..., along with tales of long ago times.

We walk because of the difficulties in parking and the heavy traffic around the viewing areas along the Thames River in Groton.  Although we were some of the last people to leave the confines of the fort at the conclusion of the fireworks program, we arrived at my parent's home while many people were still stuck in traffic.

I ended up taking 204 photographs during the 20 minute show.  Shooting 4 second exposures, I was essentially pressing my remote trigger as soon as the previous exposure had been completed. Since I had set up my equipment and tested it out prior to the start of the display, once the show commenced I could sit on our saht, look up and enjoy the show - watching the camera display above me in order to press the remote as each previous exposure was completed.  My research, experimentation and preparation were well rewarded with some very nice exposures.

My latest gallery on my website shows some of the results.

http://www.hale-worldphotography.com/Sailfest-Fireworks-2015

I hope that you enjoy the photos.