Fireworks in Broadbeach

Last night I went out with the express intention of discovering how effective the Camera preset for Fireworks actually was. So far I have been trying to use manual controls for my shots but this time I decided it was time for play. (I often make this same decision, so I shouldn't even mention it!) While I was eating my evening meal I prepared the camera and just to see what would happen I set the camera on its little tripod - a gorilla pod - and fired off a shot inside the Neicon Plaza of the statue to the Man from Snowy River. Apart from needing a little colour correction the result was not at all bad. Since I had not changed the WB from daylight, it isn't surprising that the picture was very orange before I worked on it.Inspired by the success of the setting I attached the legs of the Gorilla pod around a handrail out in the Mall and took a shot of the coloured lights, not too far away.
Again the results looked acceptable. Yes, the picture is dark but the colours are accurate and the people who were moving around in front of the camera are a blur and add a little foreground interest! Some people were standing quite still for the duration of the shot and they are quite sharp, even though they are silhouettes.
My next attempt with this setting was once I had found a suitable post to attach my gorilla pod to for when the fireworks began. I hoped that I would not end up with a crowd of people standing in front of me - and was lucky. They didn't! So I took a picture of the people who had arrived while the lights were still on and managed to get myself an "establishing shot" for the firework display.Now I felt confident that the camera was steady on the post and all I had to do was press the trigger and aim the camera in the right direction! I set the focus to a light that was some distance from me in approximately the distance I expected the fireworks to be and I was ready.
I took many shots of the fireworks and was quite excited at the results - they are very different to shots I have taken in the past and on another occasion I might try a shutter speed that is not quite as long and see how different they are. More pictures from this night can be seen here
AJ