I have taken hundreds of firework photographs, a few which I haven’t deleted, but it has been a year or two since I have taken my camera to a display. In fact this might have been the last time I got my camera out for a firework shoot. It was taken from my friend Matt’s flat overlooking Chester Race Course. He kindly let me stick my camera and tripod out of his first floor window. I took hundreds of photos as I always do with fireworks and this was one of the half a dozen or so that I liked enough not to delete.

This photograph of fireworks taken at a display in Salford is the culmination of a full year of photographs. It is the end of 2010 and I have big plans for 2011 and for future adventures with my camera. Stay tuned…

Fireworks are a photographic subject which I am very keen on. This is one of my more simple firework photographs showing three main explosions and two smaller ones. Titled “Lines of Fire” I love the colour contrast between the deep blue and the yellow lines. It may not be everyone’s favourite or one of my best firework exposures, but I still liked it enough to want to share it with you. It was captured at a professional display in Salford. It was raining at the time of capture.

I only captured a few firework shots from the recent competition at Blackpool, but this shows something that a lot of people seem to like. Everyone thinks that the smoke would be a problem in an intense display like this where they don’t leave time for the smoke to clear (as it is a timed competition). However, stood at the right angle to the wind and fireworks the smoke should blow off to the side as we see here. The smoke blurs because the camera is set up to capture a long exposure time.