Montgomery Township in New Jersey typically has their Independence Day Fireworks celebration a few days before the 4th of July. This year it will be tonight. I have a great location to view the fireworks just down the road from my house. It is on a hill that looks down on the high school where the main event occurs.
I set up one camera set to do time-lapsed images (D3x with 180 mm f/2.8 lens), and a second camera do DSLR Video (D3x with 85 mm f/1.4 lens). The following 12 images were from the D3x and 180 mm lens. I haven’t used the 180 mm f/2.8 prime lens for some time and forgot how sharp this lens can be.
Four years ago I drove the recently opened Trail Ridge Road to the pass. At that time I took 5 vertical images with a Nikon D200 and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens to be combined into a panorama. At that time the software to combine images for a composite panorama image were just starting to be available (including manually moving layers in Photoshop CS3), and don’t have the capabilities of the programs available today. The first panorama is the composite of 5 raw images using Auto Pano Giga 2.5. The second panorama used Auto Pano Giga with the Neutralhazer plugin (to reduce the effect of long distance haze). The folks from Kolor that created the dehazer claim that the program reduces the effect of light traveling through long distances of air. The third panorama adds the Topaz Detail (Color Jump) filter to the above. Let me know what you think about the three versions.
Summer in New Jersey. Independence Day Fireworks Video.
I finally had a chance to process the DSLR video of the 30-June-2011 Montgomery Township Fireworks display. The Nikon D3s camera is limited to 5 minute HD (720P) video segments. I ended up with three 5 minute segments. I left the in-camera sound recording on to get the sound effects of the fireworks. I also got commentary about the fireworks from a family sitting in front of my tripod. At one point you can hear a train whistle. The other clicking sound is the shutter of my other cameras. I used Adobe Premiere Pro to combine the first and third segments, zoomed in a bit so the firework display takes up more of the image, and increased the volume. I also used Premiere Pro to add a title page to the video.
Image of a bullfrog at the Sourland Mountain Preserve near my home in New Jersey. I found this when going back are reviewing some old images. I realized that it was a very productive day, and that I have a lot of other images from the day that I should publish — wildflowers, butterflies, bees, and dragonflies. I need to check the location out this weekend to see what is present this year.
We had a retirement party for Ann DeCamp today in Rahway. Ann has been a colleague for over 25 years. She will now be able to sepend more time with her family and her photography (Ann De Camp Photography). Best Wishes.