My excellent fireworks adventure

My plan was to take pictures of the July 4th fireworks in Newburgh, New York, from the top of Mount Beacon. My plan didn't work.
I did hike to near the top of Mount Beacon, and I will do that hike again. But the trail was much steeper than I expected. Walking down that trail in the dark did not seem like a good idea.
Here's a picture of part of the trail and the view looking north from near the top:



The Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie is barely visible in the right photo.
After walking back down the mountain, and seeing a wonderful sunset in spots along the way, I decided to shoot the fireworks from the Beacon waterfront.
The sky and the water were beautiful even before the fireworks started. You can see the planet Venus in the clouds on the left side of the picture.


I must have bumped by tripod on the following picture, as you can see from the bright light at left, but I also captured a surprise in the frame.

Here's a slideshow of images from before, during and after the fireworks display. You can view the images larger by clicking on the icon under the bottom right corner of the photographs.



2010 Newburgh fireworks - Images by Tom Bushey

Sunday night lights

I shot the photo below after an Orange County Youth Football League game in Otisville, N.Y., on a Sunday night.



The sky didn't look that dramatic at the field, but I stopped on my way home when I saw this view. I only got a few frames off before the lights were turned off. I was glad I had a tripod in the car. The exposure was 0.4 seconds at f2.8 at 800.



Here's what it looked like with the field lights off.