Late certainly helps, as noone is in your way so you can set up wherever you want. ; You can linger a good solid hour or mode past the fireworks, and the crowd thins drastically. ; This was at almost 11pm on a 9pm night:
But the other nice thing about night shooting is that you don't really have to worry too much about people walking through, because the longer shutter speeds will mostly ghost them out. ; This one at 8:30pm probably had a dozen people walk through a 10 second exposure, but the only real evidence of people being there is the lady standing still at the doorway, and the kid who had a neon necklace on as he walked through the frame:
Another at 8:30ish...this one had dozens of people milling about, but really only the ones who stayed in one spot for too long got picked up, so it came out OK for me:
In this case, the ghost is obvious, because they had a white shirt on and walked under a streetlamp...but though I'd have preferred they not be there, I still don't mind the shot with the ghost in it either!:
Here's one I couldn't be too angry at...I was taking a long exposure of the archway details in morocco when a man pushing a carriage walked right into my scene in the archway. ; Had he moved through in one motion, all would have been well - but he tried to be the good and helpful person, and froze right where he was (apparently thinking he wasn't in the shot). ; I thanked him and waved him through...but he sat still long enough to leave some plasmic discharge in front of the camel:
