Fourth of July at Independence Park

Fourth of July at Independence Park (Originally uploaded by randubnick)

I took this photo tonight at Independence Park in Beverly, Massachusetts, a great place to watch fireworks. This is a beachfront park, and fireworks from at least three nearby towns can be seen: Salem, Marblehead, and Beverly Farms. Because of the distance, the sounds are muted, but the water reflects and enhances the visual effects. In addition, there are lights along the shore, and even on the water because some people watch the fireworks from their boats. I took my new digital camera along, thinking I would try to get some pictures. My camera has a setting for fireworks. Well, I loved the fireworks, but was disappointed with most of the photos I took, and none of them do the scene justice. For one thing, it took me a while to figure out that this was a slow shutter speed, so to get a clear picture, the camera has to be held very still. So I got a lot of mistakes. But a few of the mistakes were interesting, and this is one of the best! I adjusted the contrast to enhance the bright lights, and cropped this image to get the composition I wanted.