Why pre-ordering is dangerous (and often stupid)

On 6/29/11 2:32 PM, Alan Browne wrote:
On 2011-06-29 17:27 , tony cooper wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:57:53 -0400, Alan Browne
wrote:

On 2011-06-29 16:40 , tony cooper wrote:
On Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:22:27 -0400, Alan Browne
wrote:

I recently sold a 1977. If I lease them I have
to get rid of them. I currently lease a car. It would have been
cheaper to buy it, but now I know I have to replace it. OTOH, I just
bought a car I expect to own for the next ten years.

Every car I buy is for 9 - 10 years.

A guy recently gave a presentation on fireworks photography at my
camera club. He uses a technique where he sets the camera to bulb,
holds a black card over the lens, removes the card when the firework
blossoms, re-covers the lens, and repeats. He gets several blossoms
in a frame. Pretty, if you like that sort of photograph.

When asked how long he keeps the shutter open, his reply was "Until
I'm done".

You can go quite a while if you think about it. Since it really is
separate exposures (in the dark, with the shutter open there is no
exposure - not enough to worry about, anyway).

So each rocket sets its own exposure in that area of the film.

The way I recall it is f/8 @ ISO 100.

I did it a couple times using a ball cap for a shutter and a remote to
hold the shutter open.

After getting a feel for the "scene" I would typically allow 3 "sets" of
shots into the frame while it was open and then close the shutter and
move on.

If it's a calm evening and the smoke builds up, then you do have to
reduce the shutter time as the smoke reflects other light sources and
rocket exhaust which reduces the contrast somewhat.

The handout he gave after the presentation says he uses a tripod,
cable release, ISO 100, and exposure of f/8, f/11, or f/16. He
usually uses f/8. Also, manual focus is important or the auto focus
searches around too much.

I rarely use AF (the other night at a wedding reception I had no choice
to use it. Dim and my eyesight ain't that sharp in dim light anymore).

Here's a couple (of the very few) I've done:

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/642698-lg.jpg

http://gallery.photo.net/photo/642676-lg.jpg

Much better if you can have a city or waterscape to shoot them with, of
course.

But much easier with a camera........:-)

Nice shots.