Composite On My Mind #4thJulyFireworks

4th of July, Independence Day for USA is popularly known for Fireworks displays in various cities in United States. I have been in US for last 3-4 years and have visited the Fireworks show every year. Last year, I went to Coe Lake, Berea to capture photos of Fireworks. Here are some of the pictures that I got last year. 

I was happy with my shots when I reviewed them last year. But when I saw these pictures this year, I felt that something was missing and there was not enough in these fireworks shots to give them a 'wow' factor. 

Here's what I thought were the problems with last years shots

1. Isolated Fireworks captured as long exposure. 
2. No foreground
3. No background
4. Pictures were more like - Fireworks on a black background

But that's not what I saw with my eyes when I went to Coe Lake. I could see water, fountain, trees etc etc. Even though fireworks were the most important elements of these photos, it could not recreate the overall mood of the "Fireworks at Coe Lake". Coe lake was not visible at all and so if I show these pictures to anyone, they cannot readily know that these pictures were taken at Coe Lake. Right?

So when I decided to go to Fireworks display this year, I wanted to overcome at-least some of these problems. I knew that there is no way to make my camera see what I am seeing with a single shot. I knew I had to make a composite. Now the only question was - Where should I go and shoot? After discussing with friends, we decided to go to Strongsville. We reached there about 9.15pm (45mins before fireworks) and I see a big grass field with tress almost 0.5 miles away. The sky is beautiful with a moon and lots of stars.  I setup my tripod and took all the different shots of fireworks, moons and stars separately. I later came back home and during post-processing I combined those images to come up with this final image. 

Now when I compare my last year's image with this image, I like this one better. There is certainly improvement, and that's what matters. As Tiger Woods say - "There’s always stuff to work on. You’re never there."