Oh, Oh, Oh – Fireworks in New Mexico – LisaDW Photography & Art

As summer officially ends later this week, I thought I would post a homage to my favorite thing about summers.

I love summer nights when you are with family and friends, everyone huddled together on chairs or laying on a blanket in the middle of a field, looking up at the sky in hushed anticipation. The first slow low whistle breaks the silence. The sound gets louder and faster, shattering the night with sound and light. There’s the bang, the boom, the cascade of colored embers peppering the night sky in their magical colors and all that you and everyone around you can do is simultaneously exclaim, “Oooh! Ahh!”

Fireworks and the 4th of July are an obvious summer pairing. A not so obvious pairing is fireworks and hot air balloons. All of the photos here were taken at one one the most spectacular fireworks displays I have ever had the pleasure to witness — the opening day fireworks at the Twinkle and Glow at the 2014 Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In a previous posting, I shared pictures from our own hot air balloon ride with RainbowRyders. We went a few nights later with friends to see the night launch of the balloons. The winds were too fast for the balloons to take off, but the fireworks display made up for the disappointing launch. I hope you enjoy a few of the fireworks captured by me and my trusty Canon.

First, take a look of this slideshow of the birth to death of one firework display.

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I used a rapid burst sports mode to get the sequence above. These were the best 5. I have to say that my method was not very professional; I am an amateur photog after all. I didn’t have a tripod. All of the shots were handheld. Also, while I never use the digital display, only the viewfinder, I held the camera far from my face so both eyes could immediately go to the sky to watch the display in full view. Only occasionally did my eye go to the viewfinder. My finger, however, kept hitting the shutter. Here are some of the other spectacular moments I was lucky enough to capture: