I experimented with the best location to shoot Wishes from the beach. I first drew a line on Google Earth Maps from the fireworks location thru the center of the Castle and it hit at the far end of the Poly Beach. Here are 5 shots from that location using 105mm length. ; The next night I moved over east to the concrete pier where the ferry drops off and increased length to 135mm and liked the results much better. Where do most of you shoot from when not going in the park? [attachimg=1] [attachimg=2] [attachimg=3] [attachimg=4] [attachimg=5]
Here are the five shots moving east to the TTC dock. [attachimg=1] [attachimg=2] [attachimg=3] [attachimg=4] [attachimg=5] Thanks for looking and suggestions.
I can see how the first ones have better alignment of the fireworks to the castle, but with the trees getting in the shot and obscuring much of the foreground, I definitely feel the shots from the ferry launch have more interest and a nicer look. ; I like seeing the layers of the boat docks, train station, and castle filling up the foreground.
Nice work Garry! ; If I'm not shooting Wishes from inside the park, I almost always shoot it from the TTC. ; Like Justin, I don't like the trees blocking half the foreground from the Poly and I'm not DVC so I can't usually get access to TOWL at BLT.
That second set is awesome Garry! ; I agree with the others, boat launch seems to be the far better location.
The second set seems to offer more in the way of a foreground object to anchor the FW. I really love the reflections on the water. Was the ferry much of a factor in your shots? I love the fact that you preplanned the location using Google earth. I like to do the same thing when planning my shots. Now if only Google Earth had a tree height application! We would have it made!! I use this app for my droid phone: http://photoephemeris.com/ ; This app is good on the fly when you are in the parks, especially for the path of the sun and moon. ~Joanie
Thanks everyone for the look and comments. I tend to agree that having the train station and Castle from the TTC is the better shot. ; Next time I will experiment with different focal lengths. ; The ferry is a slight concern but the night I was there the third unit held off to the west waiting for the mass exit from the park. ; The app that Joanie recommended above is great for predicting sun angles. I head back home today to frigid cold but had a great stay shooting more pics than I ever dreamed. ;
