2016 Red White & Boom fireworks display in Cape Coral Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 - 10.8 sec - ISO 200 tripod mounted with cable release
These fireworks were not the first flashes of light in the skies over Cape Coral on 4th of July 2016 evening. Those were from the lightning sparking horizontally through the clouds. Still, Red White & Boom 2016 started sharply at 9:30pm with only a very light sprinkle. Toward the end the rain did start coming down a little harder and you can see the water droplets that got on my camera lens in the lower right corners of the two photos below.
2016 Red White & Boom fireworks display in Cape Coral Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 - 10.7 sec - ISO 200 tripod mounted with cable release
One of the few things I am lucky about in life is finding good photography vantage points. I arrived to the packed area barely 20 minutes before the start and had at least 6 blocks to cover on foot with camera bag and tripod bag in tow. I weaved in and out of the slow moving crowd and wound up right in a nice grassy spot with low bushes in front meaning no worries about people walking in front of my camera messing up shots or knocking it over! The view was surprisingly unobstructed and the wind was even blowing in a good direction as to not blow the smoke toward the camera.
2016 Red White & Boom fireworks display in Cape Coral Florida - Nikon D300 Tamron 17-50mm @ f/11 - 1.2 sec - ISO 200 tripod mounted with cable release
As hyped as this Cape Coral fireworks display is, I found it to be a very modest one that was often repetitive. Since they shoot them from the Cape Coral bridge itself, there is no wide open vantage point unless you were on a boat and that would make 10 second exposures impossible!