Fireworks, Diwali 2018 – Austin, Texas

When I attended my first Diwali festival last year, I brought my tripod. I shot a blue hour photograph of the temple and created an idealized fireworks composition. Objective completed. No more tripod required.

This year, for the fireworks finale, I wanted to shoot people watching the fireworks. I explored multiple angles but hit upon a picture from the rear with the fireworks as a backdrop. This couple looked especially interesting and I shot several frames and selected this as my favorite.

This is a 1/2 second exposure, necessary to capture the fully realized expositions. Handheld, with the Olympus PEN-F. A tripod would have been too slow to setup and move around. These moments go quickly.

Some manufactures don’t see the value of in-body image stabilization, still opting for outdated in-lens technology. Except, you don’t typically see image stabilization built into 50mm prime lenses. A big thanks to Olympus for enabling these kinds of photographs.