WDM, IA - Fireworks in Waukee

I am not a good photographer. I have taken some really good photos but they are mostly the result of having a pretty good little camera and playing a numbers game: take lots of photos, one is bound to be good. We also have been in places where any picture you take will probably be good. How can one take a bad picture in Yosemite, in Death Valley, in Sedona, in San Diego? On the other hand, that I have taken some bad photos - but not because the camera or the scenery is bad.

At times we’ve thought of getting a better camera as if that might help me take even better shots. (Like every golfer thinks that a new club will make her or him a better golfer.) We went into a local camera store to ask about better cameras and even looked at a few but the salesman, who also teaches photography classes in night school, showed us some techniques and gave us some hints about taking good shots with the camera we have. And, actually, the camera we have has lots of capabilities that we’ve barely experimented with. Up until now, I’ve been predominantly a ‘point and shoot’ photographer with occasional uses of the zoom feature. But, do I take advantage of focal length, time lapse, ISO? Do I even know what those terms even mean? Nope.

So we bought a book on digital photography which explains all of this. Meanwhile I got out the camera user guide which came with the camera (what a novel idea) and began to try some things. One of the special capabilities of this little camera is fireworks. So, tonight, we’ll try that out.

We had invited my brother, Jack, down to see the fireworks and he got here about 3:00. We chatted, unloaded his truck (he must think he’s staying a week with all that luggage) had dinner and journeyed over to Waukee where one batch of fireworks were. In a city like Des Moines with many suburbs, we can pick and choose fireworks shows and we’ve seen most of them. We’ve seen West Des Moines, Des Moines, Norwalk, Urbandale and tonight it’s Waukee, one of the eastern suburbs.

We got there about 7 and started our walk. You didn’t think we were going to forget our walk did you? Actually, Jack is a real walker also so it figured heavily in our plans. And, the goal was - the ice cream shop about 2 miles away. Readers of this blog will remember that Gary and I like goals - especially food goals. Ice cream here is a $1.65 a scoop and these scoops are big. Beautiful night for a walk and everyone is Waukee was out enjoying it.

We also visited with the guys setting up the fireworks, something we’ve never seen before. They had 2’ trenches dug and were inserting the tubes and the explosives into them.

When we returned, we got out our chairs, picked out spot, set up the tripod and tried a few shots in the fireworks mode. We were ready. At 9:50 the show began and I got to work. But, I didn’t forget to enjoy the fireworks show also. I didn’t spend the whole time taking pictures.

We enjoyed the fireworks, I got some good pictures and learned a bit more about my camera but the most interesting phenomenon was the mother and daughter hula hoopers in front of us who hula-hooped the ENTIRE half hour of the show. The hoops never hit the ground. And, the daughter - her hips barely moved.

I am excited about using the fireworks setting on the camera and was impressed with how well it worked. Now about those ISO’s and focal lengths. . .

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