Hey, this is Scott of Photography Banzai.
Only around 25 percent of my audience is in the United States.
I wanted to give everyone else a taste of what
an Independence Day Fourth of July celebration is like here.
My main goal was to do some street photography and take photos of the fireworks.
Equipment wise, I was going with a DJI Osmo Action for video. For photography
I was using the Canon EOS M50 Canon ef-m 22mm f/2 and I did a few photos right off the bat
with a Rockstar 10mm or f/8 manual lens, but I switch pretty quickly to the 22 millimeter lens.
I wanted a simple and compact camera kit. The 22mm from Canon is a classic street photography
focal length. So that seemed like a good option and it's compact.. lightweight...
I don't foresee myself ever being that pushy style of street photographer. That's not how I do
things. It's not what I enjoy. Of course, people that do enjoy that go for it. But in my case
I like more of the documentary style. Two guys approached me we had a nice talk.
Sounds like they are interested in doing entrepreneurial things definitely go for it!
I was walking over to photograph some boats in this area we have a
nice large river and people can go on there and watch the fireworks.
I have been to this event before. One specific time I can remember
was actually in 2013. A group of friends from the Chicago area came
into here and we all went to the fireworks. Nice fun time! I think it was quite a bit more busy
back then. I have to look at the photos. I'll show you some on screen.
Obviously not a ton of people want to come out do this type of thing,
which I was a little bit reluctant. But still... went for it with the focus on this video.
With that 22 millimeter lens it's decently wide angle,
and I tried to hold my single composition in each spot.
Spam the shutter, go up to maybe the buffer of the camera and hopefully one of those photos
would be decently sharp. Maybe not the best way to go about things, but I think it worked okay!
Nice area, a lot of it was closed off. It does look a bit barren,
but considering the situation that's not surprising. I did find groups of people
around that I could take some quick snapshots of with that street photography documentary style.
There were a few music stands set up, which is a nice touch.
That's an easy one for photos. Of course they probably want their
photo taken. I could just take a few snapshots of those, no issues.
It was interesting to see how many people are around. See groups of people. Different areas...
The bridges are great for spots to watch the fireworks,
which you can see a lot of people congregate to those spots.
Considering a lot of the areas are blocked off, this is a unique situation of course for the
downtown area. Because you can walk around spots you would never really be able to on a normal day.
There was a premium area for watching fireworks. Put some air quotes around that!
Five dollars to get in. I wasn't going to do it but I thought for the video
I might as well check it out. Take some photos in there of course and see if it is
any different than all the other areas you could walk around set up camp and watch the fireworks.
Honestly it wasn't that much different. Maybe slightly busier which would be actually better
for photos but I don't think it was worth the five dollars. You could get some food
and such which probably was the main benefit. But then you're just spending more money.
Considering I paid five bucks to get in I decided to stay in the area for
the fireworks themselves. Once the fireworks started I got ready to take photos of that.
Simple stuff at first. Shutter speed that mixes well with that specific
lens I think I was around 40th or 50th or maybe 60th of a second.
With focusing I was able to switch between manual and autofocus. Take an autofocus photo,
lock the focus with a quick button press, and take a round of photos with that.
But I wouldn't do it the entire time. I would
kind of mix up one autofocus photo and then do some manual focus, just in case it was off.
I did notice on the hotel building the reflections of the fireworks and the
windows was really interesting. Tried to take some photos of that especially.
Using that little tripod I had the camera set up
on the ground just barely enough sometimes. I used a two second timer
on that and adjusted the shutter speed and iso to get those longer exposures.
Some of them turned out okay, some of them not so much, but it's fun to try
out something different than a simple standard high iso shot.
For the last round of photos I moved up and took a little piece of tape that I had with
me and covered up the timer light thing, so it wouldn't bother people around me. Using a little
bit of a slower shutter I think it was one-fourth or one-fifth of a second. That worked out okay!
Overall really fun experience taking those photos.
Scott of Photography Banzai, thanks!