Writing with Sparklers

7.06.2014


I've never seen anything like my town on the Fourth of July. 

Personal fireworks are illegal in most of the state, but they are legal in my town, and people drive from all over to blow up fireworks in the park on the Fourth. In fact, personal fireworks are such a huge deal that the town always holds its firework display the weekend before the Fourth.

I'd always heard about how big of a deal fireworks were in our town, but last year was the first time I saw it in person. I went to the park to take pictures and got some really awesome ones. The picture below is pretty much what you would see if you stood in the middle of town and turned in a complete circle. It's absolutely nuts, and it goes on for hours.
This year a group of us had a cookout in a friend's house a few miles down the road, so the display wasn't as intense as being in the park. But from their backyard we could still see some of the craziness.

To be honest, I kept seeing pictures on Facebook and Tweets from people at the lake or the beach or up in the mountains, so I was feeling kind of lame about staying home this weekend. I was thankful to have friends to hang out with on Friday night. It was fun!
We all hung out and blew up our own fireworks while I played with sparklers. I wanted to see if I could make letters and shapes with a low shutter speed and my tripod, and...success! I really think taking pictures of fireworks might be one of my favorite things to take pictures of. You just never know what you're going to get.


Are fireworks legal in your town?
Anyone else get any good firework or sparkler pictures this year?
ALLIE NYC said...

I know! I went to my friends for the 4th and their neighborhood people really go all out with the fire works. They were like watching professional fire works, it was great!

Allie of ALLIE NYC
allienyc.com

Breenah A said...

I finally got some good firework pictures because I got a fancy-ish camera and tripod for Christmas. My mom tried to take some pictures of me writing with a sparkler, but with my other camera so none of them came out.

Saxon @ Lets Drink Coffee, Darling said...

Wow, I've never heard of any city allowing fireworks in city limits! Tyler would have loved to know this...he doesn't even care about fireworks unless he gets to pop them himself!

My hometown (where my parents live) only has a population of like 345 people or something, so of course everyone pops theirs in town there, but since living in Oklahoma's larger towns/cities I just assumed they were illegal in all of them. We might be visiting your town in the park next year! ;)

Veronica Lee Burns said...

Are you in Mustang? We had friends that went there just to shoot off a ton of their own fireworks. We watched OKC this year instead of Norman. It was fun to walk around downtown before they started.

Nic @ uglygreencouch.net said...

Wow, you got some great shots! Fireworks are legal where I live. So legal, in fact, that people were still setting them off at 9:30 this morning. HEY YA'LL WATCH THIS!

Team Harries said...

So fun!! On New Years Eve we always use sparklers that are leftover from our wedding to write the new year :) They are illegal in Dallas, but we spent the 4th in Kansas where they are legal... which was fun!! It brought back so many memories of when I was kid and going to the stand to buy and then setting them off!!! Brought back memories :)

Anonymous said...

Awesome pictures! I'd love to be able to take fireworks pics like those. Can you write a post about how you took those?

Rachel said...

Michigan just majorly relaxed its fireworks laws a couple years ago-- it's been quite the fireworks party around here the past few days! I've seen a lot of people do the sparkler pics, yours turned out really cool! My family had some fireworks last night and there were some that looked like flashing strobe lights so we decided we needed to have a dance party every time we lit up a strobe light firework--it was hilarious, several generations of my relatives and me just jumping around and dancing like crazy to our strobe light fireworks...good thing we live in the middle of nowhere so there's no one to see...

Tara said...

LOVE these shots! We didn't go to fireworks this year since we have a brand-new baby, but we can actually see some of the town's firework display from our apartment, so that worked out pretty well :)

Holly @ Hello Audrey Ruth said...

Love those shots! I didn't know fireworks were legal there or that all that craziness happened. I LOVE fireworks so I may have to check that out next year. Adam and I tried some long exposure photos too! We ran out of sparklers before I could actually write anything though. Oh well.

Food, Booze, & Baggage said...

AMAZING pictures!! The first one after the title picture is SO good and I can't believe you got your whole name spelled out!

Tanya Patrice said...

Wow - gorgeous pictures and wow what a show!

Chesson | Magnolia+Main said...

Love, love, love your fireworks pictures! I've never been able to get good pictures but like y'all, fireworks are legal where I am and there are tooooooons going on all the time around the 4th. Looks like you had a good celebration :)

The Lady Okie said...

I probably won't do a post on the settings I used, but all you really need is a tripod and then a slow shutter speed. Just play around with it! Here are a few good sites where I got some tips:

http://clickitupanotch.com/2013/07/how-to-photograph-fireworks/
and
http://www.longdistanceloving.net/2014/06/how-to-write-with-sparklers.html

The Hungry Goat said...

that is so cool! I'm adding that to my bucket list. Also, your town sounds awesome.

Unknown said...

Amazing photos! So pretty! And the letters look perfect. :)

Charlotte's Frame said...

Only legal at new years eve and if you have a permit for a special event etc.. Although, I have heard it several times at night because of the world cup :]

Anonymous said...

Very cool pictures. Love the ones of your name written in sparklers!

Anonymous said...

p.s. Where did you find the font you used in the title image? Or did you create it?

Becky said...

I'm highly impressed with your sparkler writing skills!!!! Probably should frame that and put it up in the house :)

Mary said...

Oh wow! You got some fantastic firework pics!
New Years Eve and Guy Fawkes Night are our top occasions over in the UK. I've seen some fantastic displays for Guy Fawkes, but nowhere near as many at once as you have in that photo!

Holly said...

I LOVE your photos!!! ALL of them!!! Especially the writing ones--amazing!! Glad you had a good 4th!

Amy said...

it is so weird to me that fireworks are illegal in certain areas haha. we have fireworks ALL THE TIME!
love your photos - so. much. fun! (and colorful!)

Emily @ Ember Grey said...

OH. MY GOSH. !!!!! That first picture with all of the fireworks- that's amazing!!! All of your pictures are fabulous. (And great job at writing your name with the sparklers... I can never seem to get it down!)

Rebecca Jo said...

I tried to get a wedding party to do sparkler pictures... they were too drunk by the end of the night for anything to come out of it ;)

Robyn B said...

i've always seen people write with sparklers & wanted a picture like that! really neat!
don't feel lame about staying home this weekend - me and my husband were at the hospital all weekend with his grandpa - we did leave and drive to the top of my works parking garage to see a few fireworks over the trees lol

Unknown said...

I love all your firework pictures! Sometimes getting firework pictures can be tricky but yours look awesome! I love your name written in sparkles too! Don't feel bad about staying home. Tyler and I didn't even make an effort to see fireworks. Tyler had a three day weekend so we decided we were going to do nothing. Which is rare for us, so on Friday night we watched movies and ate pizza. It was amazing.

Anonymous said...

Looks like a lovely 4th! My husband loves shooting off fireworks. When we lived in Dallas, we'd drive as far as necessary to find a spot to shoot them off. Now that we are in El Paso (and it's so dry that shooting off your own fireworks is dangerous), we're relegated to just watching. That's ok by me since diy fireworks scare me!

Anonymous said...

I loooooove your sparkler-letter pictures. Well done!!

I bet pets HATE living in your town on the 4th of July. All that noise!!

-Amy

Emily said...

UM I wanna be in your town on the fourth of July! We had some entertainment in the park behind our house but it was nothing close to this!! Also your pictures turned out amazing - I'm so impressed. I always blur a picture of fireworks!

Beka @ Sunshine to the Square Inch said...

You are not lame at all for staying home! I'm learning that sometimes staying home is super nice. We tried it a couple of weekends ago and I loved it!

The fireworks look LEGIT where you live. SO FUN!

Kerry @ Till Then Smile Often said...

We got rained out this year but I do like fireworks. So cool you got to spell out your name in sparklers! I can usually always hear and see fireworks from my house (totally illegal) but Seamus doesn't like them so I stay in to keep him calm.

Allison said...

Your name in sparklers?! That turned out so fun!! Sounds like a great weekend.

Natalie M said...

Those turned out fantastic!

The Lady Okie said...

Here's where you can download it! http://kevinandamanda.com/fonts/fontsforpeas/pea-ellie-bellie/

Rach said...

Your picture from last year is insane!! My gracious, there are so many fireworks! It would be SO neat to be sitting in that park, taking it all in! Looks like you had a lot of fun this year too, though. Hanging out with friends is always good stuff. :) And writing with sparklers is such fun! The name pictures turned out great!

Betty said...

I love your fireworks pictures!! I have never managed to get a good fireworks photo. We actually were in Canada for this 4th, so no fireworks for us this year (well except the occasional ones that neighbors continue to let off!).

Kate said...

LOVE the pictures!

Fireworks are VERY legal here. Firework tents pop up every few miles a few weeks before the 4th.
My hometown has always has huge festivities for the 4th. On the 3rd, we have boat races, jet ski competitions, battle of the bands, and various other shenanigans. And because our town was built ON the water, people come out in HORDES on their boats to watch the firewIorks from the water. It's pretty fabulous.

Caitlin said...

This looks like so much fun! Our 4th of July was washed out by a tropical storm, so I've been soaking up all the fireworks pictures I can. Writing with fireworks looks so cool!

・ DESIGNED BY ECLAIR DESIGNS