{"id":416,"date":"2026-07-04T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T01:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/javier.dominguez.photography\/blog\/?p=416"},"modified":"2026-07-06T23:02:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T03:02:35","slug":"united-states-of-americas-250th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/javier.dominguez.photography\/blog\/2026\/07\/04\/united-states-of-americas-250th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"United States of America’s 250th Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Town of Monroe, NY outdid itself with the firework show they put out for the 250th Independence Day. I went to Millpond with my son and his friends. We arrived just in time, when the fireworks started. The park was packed with people. I brought my camera with me and started taking pictures of the fireworks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Z 8, Nikkor Z 24-120mm f\/4 S, @37mm, f\/5.0, 1 sec, ISO 125<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First, I started with using a half-a-second exposure. I didn’t bring my tripod and had to hold the camera as steady I as could. The results were not good, because to trace the light and colors of the fireworks, the exposure on the sensor needs a longer exposure, of at least 1 and 1\/3 of a second. This exposure time also depends of how far away you are from the fireworks and what type of lens you are using.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Z 8, Nikkor Z 24-120mm f\/4 S, @46mm, f\/5.0, 16\/10, ISO 125<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With an extended exposure, immobilizing the camera is crucial to eliminate motion blur. Since I didn’t bring a tripod, I could only rely on how steady my hands could be. To keep a picture sharp, without motion blur, the rule of thumb is that the longest exposure should be the inverse of the lens’ focal length. So, if I was using a 24-120 mm at 37mm, the maximum exposure should have been 1\/37th of a second. Here I was shooting for a whole second … The results were OK, although I could see the blur on the bottom of my images (as you can see above.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Z 8, Nikkor Z 24-120mm f\/4 S, @46mm, f\/5.0, 1.6 sec, ISO 125<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, I wanted a longer exposure, to capture better the movement of the fireworks. So, I decided to shoot just a little bit longer, with exposures of 1.6 seconds. As you can see above, the motion blur is more noticeable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Z 8, Nikkor Z 24-120mm f\/4 S, @46mm, f\/5.0, 1.6 sec, ISO 125<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For this, I kept my arms closer to my body, held my breath, and shoot the pictures. It is one of these images, above, that I decided to choose as my picture of the month for July 2026. The pond’s border has little blur, and the people at the bottom of the images have some ‘ghosting’ from their movement. That part I like, it gives some life to the image.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Z 8, Nikkor Z 24-120mm f\/4 S, @42mm, f\/5.0, 1.6 sec, ISO 125<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A second runner among the pictures I was considering is the image above. There is some movement blur at the bottom, but the fireworks look amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fireworks blasted for about 20 minutes. The people at Millpond were happy and left feeling that they had been part of a really good show. That’s how we felt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy 4th of July!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Town of Monroe, NY hosted a spectacular fireworks show for its 250th Independence Day celebration. Attending with his son, the author struggled with camera settings due to not using a tripod. Despite challenges, he captured some impressive images, appreciating both the fireworks and the joyful atmosphere at Millpond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[101,104,102,14,103],"class_list":["post-416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-potm","tag-fireworks","tag-long-exposure","tag-monroe","tag-new-york","tag-night-photography"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":94,"url":"https:\/\/javier.dominguez.photography\/blog\/2024\/07\/01\/central-park-fireworks-show\/","url_meta":{"origin":416,"position":0},"title":"Central Park Fireworks Show","author":"Javier","date":"July 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Picture of the Month (July 2024) Happy 4th of July! I hope you celebrate with friends and family, enjoy a barbeque (vegan, vegetarian, and\/or omnivorous), and the fireworks (either live from your local town, or on the TV. 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They contrast this with black and white photography's forgiving nature. Embracing digital tools, they now shoot in color but can transform images to black and white,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Picture of the Month"","block_context":{"text":"Picture of the Month","link":"https:\/\/javier.dominguez.photography\/blog\/category\/potm\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53,"url":"https:\/\/javier.dominguez.photography\/blog\/2023\/05\/01\/the-song-sparrow\/","url_meta":{"origin":416,"position":2},"title":"The Song Sparrow","author":"Javier","date":"May 1, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"What I want to share with you this month is a picture of a song sparrow, one of the 20 species of sparrows you can regularly see in the Estate of New York. They are the chirping kind, as you can expect from their name.","rel":"","context":"In "Picture of the Month"","block_context":{"text":"Picture of the Month","link":"https:\/\/javier.dominguez.photography\/blog\/category\/potm\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Song sparrow","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/javier.dominguez.photography\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Monroe_23041091.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/javier.dominguez.photography\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Monroe_23041091.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/javier.dominguez.photography\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Monroe_23041091.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/javier.dominguez.photography\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Monroe_23041091.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/javier.dominguez.photography\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Monroe_23041091.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":229,"url":"https:\/\/javier.dominguez.photography\/blog\/2024\/10\/08\/new-york-commuter\/","url_meta":{"origin":416,"position":3},"title":"New York commuter","author":"Javier","date":"October 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I think this is a quintessential New York image. 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