I’ve written here about fireworks before, and how easy it actually is to take photos of them, so I won’t repeat myself. (Although I must admit, standing on Blackfriars Bridge, I had to check my own site on my phone to remind myself – a little bit rusty after nearly a year since Ally Pally!)

The display was fantastic. No matter how many times I go to a display on the Thames (and in my 5th year of living in London now, I’ve been to a few), I always love how the noise of the explosions bounce off the buildings either side of the river, resulting in a quite heart-pounding experience.

I particularly like the reflections in this shot, not only the reds beneath the fireworks, but the other ones: a subtle purple streak from the National Theatre, and another smudge of red from the Oxo tower. Also, unlike later shots, there’s not too much smoke. Unfortunately for us on Blackfriars Bridge, the wind was somewhat towards us, meaning later shots aren’t quite as tidy.

Last night I went up to Alexandra Palace in north London for one of the city’s best displays. Because the Palace is on top of such a big hill, you get fantastic views across the city, and every now and then there’s a little burst of fireworks in the panorama in front of you, even before the main display starts. We managed to watch most of a display in Greenwich while walking back down, which puts the view into perspective.

It was a bit crowded – something like 50,000 people – and there was a bit of a mad rush after getting food and so on to get to a half decent spot, on a fairly steep slope. Luckily, with my brand spanking new Velbon Sherpa 250 tripod, this wasn’t much of an issue. I took plenty of photos during displays last year, so I wasn’t paying much attention to the camera this year, except to have a little experiment with zooming in and out during a shot at one point – you can see the half-decent result here.

Taking photos of fireworks is pretty simple, really – so long as you do have a tripod. The basics are:

• Manual settings!
• Low ISO for best colour reproduction and least noise
• Quite narrow aperture for depth of field – I was using f/11 most of the night – so it doesn’t really matter if your focusing is off.
• Long exposures. A lot of my shots were on 2.5″, although at times I went up to 15″. Try out various combinations for different effects, and find your own personal style.

I’m off to the Lord Mayor’s Fireworks on the Thames again next weekend, so expect more soon!