The Cobh People’s Regatta took place last weekend and the town was hopping. We enjoyed the live music, getting up close to the stage to watch Qween rock the place.
Shortly after 10pm, the fireworks went off, and we rushed over to the water’s edge by the pier to watch the spectacle.
I didn’t have time to set up my camera, tripod and remote release, so I watched the fireworks for a few moments, enjoying myself. Not content with being a passive watcher, I decided to have a go at shooting them handheld.
The exposure time couldn’t be too long, or the photo would be very shaky, and the sensor had to be sensitive enough to capture the light of the explosions in the sky. I decided on the following settings:
- 0.5 to 1 second exposure.
- f/4 to f/6.3 aperture, depending on zoom.
- ISO 400 ensures the sensor picks up the light.
The fireworks were only just offshore, so maybe 200m away from me, and I found these settings worked really well! I kept one eye open and that helped me see what the camera was capturing and see what was about to happen. I shot handheld, so I was able to adapt more quickly to low or high fireworks and I really enjoyed the illumination!
| Aperture | ƒ/6.3 |
| Camera | ILCE-7M3 |
| Focal length | 128mm |
| ISO | 400 |
| Shutter speed | 1/2s |
