Day 35 (Sat., July 3)

Today, I continued my firework-shooting experience. It was a very long process. Knowing the City of Dallas was going to host its 4th of July celebration today at City Hall Plaza, I figured I go do some homework. I drove around the city for almost three hours. Looking for the perfect angle. Talking to people about their previous City of Dallas 4th of July Celebration. However, this was the first time they held the event near downtown, so I had to capture the essence of this "new" event. So, I found out where the fireworks were going to be shot off. I talked to apartment managers, parking lot and parking structure security guards and to the manager at a hotel in hope to getting access to the best angle. The fireworks were going to be shot off the top of the City Hall, according to an event organizer I talked to at around 2 p.m. Luckily, I was able to get access to the top of the Ramada Plaza Hotel which gave me the best view of City Hall, with the Dallas skyline on the background. That set-up is seen on the following photo. As I sat there today in the afternoon, I imagined "bombs bursting in air" over the Dallas skyline. It was perfect.

Fastforward 9.5 hours after I spoke to the event organizer. I shoot the above photo to see how "sweet" this location really was. Again, I imagined the "bombs bursting in air". Then the expected time for the fireworks came. And as slated, the fireworks started to go off. I looked to my set-up and there was nothing. I looked 1/4-mile to the left and there, on top of the Convention Center was where these fireworks were exploding. "Arrrrggggghhhhhh," I thought as I had to improvise. I had to switch my cameras (I shot both 35mm and digital film frames of the event) in order to get a good view. Of course, I worried about getting a nice shot and it wasn't until the end of the show when I realized how my hard-work this afternoon almost paid off. The bottom photo shows a little of the city, but the ideal would have been with all the buildings in the frame. Oh well, you live and learn. Today, I learned a little more about photography and about events. I'll try again tomorrow and hopefully this time my homework gets an A.

 

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