Fourth of July Sky

Setting up an optimum spot well in advance of the annual Cedar Rapids, Iowa Fourth of July fireworks display, our group claimed this location on the east bank of the Cedar River downtown, next to the Great America building. This and all subsequent images face northwest with Mays Island in the background. Above, a distant storm system hugs the horizon in this image captured at 7:48 pm CDT, Thursday, July 4, 2019. The most intense part of the storm was located about 80 miles away, east of Charles City, Iowa. It had earlier been severe-warned from 6:50-7:30 pm.

9:09 pm. Testing exposure settings as night begins to fall. The distant storm system now appears akin to a mountain range in the background. A portion of the Great American building can be seen at right.
For fireworks display captures, I would use my Nikon D7200 DSLR camera with a Tokina AT-X 116 Pro DX II 11-16mm f/2.8 aspherical lens with a Nikon MC-DC2 remote cord and Vanguard Alta Pro 263 AT tripod. All exposures (of varying time lengths) were captured at f/11, ISO 100 and 16mm focal length. No rain would fall on this fireworks display this night. Temperature at show start was 79 degrees F with 84% humidity.

9:45 pm. Freedom Festival fireworks display begins. Spectators can be seen at lower right. 8 second exposure. Most of the following images are cropped versions done in post-processing.

9:47 pm. 5 second exposure.

9:47 pm. 10 second exposure.

9:47 pm. 5 second exposure.

9:48 pm. 8 second exposure.

9:52 pm. 13 second exposure.

9:57 pm. 10 second exposure.

10:01 pm. 10 second exposure.

10:04 pm. 20 second exposure.

10:06 pm. 13 second exposure.

Uncropped version of image above it, showing a good view of my location.

10:07 pm. 10 second exposure. Part of grand finale sequence.

10:07 pm. 8 second exposure. Part of grand finale sequence. The 2019 fireworks show lasted from about 9:45-10:08 pm.

This image is a stacked group of 5 separate exposures taken from 9:45-9:47 pm. Each exposure ranges from 5 to 8 seconds. Note the waxing crescent moon at left and dark bank of clouds in the distant background.