A little late, but we blew off some steam, so to speak, on the Fourth of July. Palestine, Texas has ample, cheap fireworks. We did it right, launching several hundred fireworks in celebration of America.
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I spent most of the time taking pictures with my Olympus EP-2 with some reflective optics with a long focal length (effectively 500mm). This meant that most fireworks, even ones dozens of feet in the air, show up as a few spindles in my field of view. Integrating over the time of the firework, 2-3 seconds, and focusing and defocusing the lens gives makes an abstract burst of color set against the dark sky. You might notice circles appearing in the streaks. They result from the Cassegrain optics of the lens I was using, much like its telescopic cousin. It's imprecise to call the hunk of metal and glass on the front of the camera a lens; it's really a compact telescope.
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