Photo Contest - Fire In The Sky (6/29-7/5)

AI Thread Summary
The forum discussion centers around a photo contest themed "Fireworks," coinciding with the US Independence Day on July 4th. Participants are required to submit original digital photos featuring fireworks, adhering to specific rules such as size limitations and restrictions on editing. The contest allows only one submission per member, and photos must be uploaded to a designated photo server before linking in the thread. As the discussion unfolds, members express excitement about capturing fireworks, share past experiences, and discuss the challenges of photographing them, especially during crowded events. Some participants suggest extending the submission deadline to July 6th to accommodate those who plan to take photos on the 4th. Several members share their past fireworks photos, including entries from notable events like the 1984 Olympics and Disney World displays. The conversation also touches on the quality of local fireworks shows, with some expressing disappointment over budget cuts affecting displays. Overall, the thread highlights the community's enthusiasm for photography and the shared experience of celebrating Independence Day through fireworks.
ZapperZ
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Fire In The Sky

With the US Independence Day coming up on the 4th of July, what more appropriate theme to have right now than... FIREWORKS!

All your pictures must feature fireworks. It does not, however, include unexploded fireworks (i.e. pictures of fireworks in a package in some store do not count).

Contest Rules:

1. Any digital photo or digitally-scanned photo relevant to the theme will be accepted within the contest period. In case there's a grey area, or you're not sure if the picture is suitable, check with me first.

2. Please resize your digital photo to no more than 650 x 490 pixels. You may also crop your picture if you wish. But other than that, any form of picture editing or modification is not allowed. This is a photo contest, not a picture editing/special effect contest. You may add a watermark or your name/nickname to the photo for identification purposes.

3. Upload your photos to any of the photo servers such as imageshack. Then post it the relevant contest thread and link your picture using the img command. PM me if you do not know how.

4. Only ONE picture per member per contest.

5. At the end of the contest period, I will open a poll and every PF member can vote for the picture they like best.

6. Note that in case we have a large number of entries, I will do the polling in more than one thread. If that's the case, you can vote in each of the polling threads. The photos will be assigned in the the polling threads in the order they were submitted.

7. These pictures must be something that you took, not something taken off someone else's photo albums or taken by someone else. I have no way of checking if you did this, so we'll go by the honor system.

8. You can use a picture only once. Once it is used in a contest, it cannot be reused in another contest.

9. Please post only pictures meant for submission in this thread.

Zz.
 
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Luckily for me Canada Day is June 1 so I might be able to get something for this one to :)
 
scorpa said:
Luckily for me Canada Day is June 1 so I might be able to get something for this one to :)

July 1st! :devil:
 
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Actually quite a few Americans around here celebrate Canada Day by mistake, since they set off their explosives for the whole week surrounding Independence day. Very immature adults. In my county they sell fireworks at gas stations. :rolleyes:
 
Rach3 said:
July 1st! :devil:


Haha whoops bit of a stupid typo there :redface:
 
Cool. I have some fireworks photos saved on my other computer from when I attended the international fireworks competition in Vancouver, BC a couple years ago. It was still my old, slow digital camera, so I had a hard time timing the really good shots, but I got a few that are worth sharing. I just hope I still have the unedited originals for this (I might have done some adjusting for brightness and contrast to bring out the fireworks better when showing them to friends).
 
Wow! Is this the longest we have gone for a photo contest without even a single picture?

:)

Zz.
 
ZapperZ said:
Wow! Is this the longest we have gone for a photo contest without even a single picture?

:)

Zz.


I don't have anything with fireworks...I do have a lot of mountain photos.
 
Yep got nothing I'm afraid dude, it'll have to be a week off the old compo for me unless I can find any firework shows this week (unlikely!).
 
  • #10
I'll have pics on the fourth :\
 
  • #11
Hey Zapper, since fireworks are usually on july 4th at night, and many people will go out, and do pictures, or parties, for sake of convenience, would you be willing to extend the final day to july 6th?, just to give people some time, to choose good pictures, and then best out of good.
 
  • #12
You have all of the 5th to pick out the best pictures, so I think there's plenty of time. I'm going to play it by ear and see how many we get by the end of the 5th.

Zz.
 
  • #13
I don't expect to get any new ones this year (can't imagine there would be any really spectacular fireworks displays nearby), but just in case I'm wrong, I'm holding off until the 4th or 5th to post my entry. Others will probably be doing the same since you can't just run out and photograph fireworks any time.
 
  • #14
This set of instruction is rather timely.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/936

Zz.
 
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  • #15
Do sparklers count as fireworks for this contest or do they actually have to be in the sky fireworks?
 
  • #16
Sparklers do not count.

Zz.
 
  • #17
OK I missed out on the fireworks yesterday so I got nothing for this one :(
 
  • #18
It's relatively easy to manage, just go back in time and do some pictures, I lend you my time machine.
 
  • #19
Apparently the town had fireworks tonight. I missed them (I was going to go see them with a couple of friends, but I was working all day and too tired, so was relieved when I found a message from them on my phone saying they were too tired/lazy to go out tonight). So, I guess I'll be digging through the old saved pictures.
 
  • #20
It's raining here, all day today. That will likely mess up any plans I have to see the fireworks :frown:
 
  • #21
I'm off to see if I can dig up some of my Epcot photographs of the Festival of Light, that is unless Zz beats me to it :biggrin:
 
  • #22
Tsu has some nice shots from the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. She will post one later.
 
  • #23
Oy vey... Looks like *I* will be the first one to submit a picture here.

Since practically all of my fireworks pictures were taking at Disney World, this will be one of them.

http://img351.imageshack.us/img351/7945/img38639zy.jpg

Zz.
 
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  • #24
Well, we knew you'd have a Disney picture for this one. :biggrin:
 
  • #25
ZZ, you should be banned for submitting too beautiful pictures for every contest.
 
  • #26
heartless said:
ZZ, you should be banned for submitting too beautiful pictures for every contest.

No, I shouldn't. If you check the winners list, I don't even make it to that even once. <sobbing>

Zz.
 
  • #27
ZapperZ said:
Oy vey... Looks like *I* will be the first one to submit a picture here.

Since practically all of my fireworks pictures were taking at Disney World, this will be one of them.

http://img351.imageshack.us/img351/7945/img38639zy.jpg

Zz.
I knew you had one up your sleeve!
That is beautiful!
 
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  • #28
Yeah, I'm not even sure it's worth posting my picture now. It'll look absolutely pathetic by comparison. :frown:
 
  • #29
Okay, here's my humble offering. The fireworks were far more spectacular than my photography.

http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/8483/fireworks5sb.jpg
 
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  • #30
In keeping with Zapper's "fireworks" theme this week, I think we need a "baby skunks" theme next week. That seems pretty balanced to me. :biggrin:
 
  • #31
A reminder that you have a bit more than one day left to post a picture for this contest. So far, we have only two photos.

Zz.
 
  • #32
We had some fireworks here last night - but not very impressive compared to the last few years. Budget cuts all round, it appears. I took my camera with me but it was terribly crowded (about a million people packed into a tiny park). I was late, and had to settle for a poor spot on the rocks by the river - no place to set up a tripod. I didn't get any good shots. :frown:

But my internet's down at home until tomorrow (tomorrow if I'm lucky).
 
  • #33
Ivan Seeking said:
In keeping with Zapper's "fireworks" theme this week, I think we need a "baby skunks" theme next week. That seems pretty balanced to me. :biggrin:
I might be able to participate in "Wild Animals that Wandered into Your Home" week. :smile:
 
  • #34
ZapperZ said:
So far, we have only two photos.

Zz.
Well, at least one of us has to win that way. :biggrin: It might be the best chance I have of coming in second. :smile:
 
  • #35
Math Is Hard said:
I might be able to participate in "Wild Animals that Wandered into Your Home" week. :smile:

Great idea MIH. I'd be able to contribute if "Wild animals and how I wandered into their home" would be allowed as well. :smile:
 
  • #36
nazzard said:
Great idea MIH. I'd be able to contribute if "Wild animals and how I wandered into their home" would be allowed as well. :smile:
Let me guess.. the first bowl of porridge you tried was too hot, the second was too cold, but the third was just right...?:biggrin:
 
  • #37
Wow, next year I HAVE to get to Pittsburgh to watch the fireworks! I'm watching theirs on TV now, and they are fantastic! Lots of really nifty kinds that I haven't seen before too. And it just keeps going and going and going! They have a regatta on the rivers too. I think that means I need to find a boat owner in Pittsburgh to befriend. :biggrin: I wish I knew about them sooner; I could have made the trip up this evening.
 
  • #38
Well, it's not that great but it's (sort of) an entry... :rolleyes:
This is a shot from the 1984 LA Summer Olympics. We had lots of smoke back in the '80's. :biggrin:

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/6323/fireworks9kq.jpg
 
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  • #39
My entry from tonight's display. Taken with a digital camera held over my head to see over the crowd, but uts better than nothing.

http://home.earthlink.net/~parvey/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/fire.jpg
 
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  • #40
There were no fireworks in my area...just some from sone neighbors a couple of houses down, but there was a tree in the way so all I could see was a glow
 
  • #41
Math Is Hard said:
Let me guess.. the first bowl of porridge you tried was too hot, the second was too cold, but the third was just right...?:biggrin:

How do you know? :smile: Correct species! Yet the only thing they left was a pile of salmon. :smile: Luckily they had enough of this food resource during that time of the year, or someone else might have ended up on the menu. :rolleyes:
 
  • #42
Janus said:
My entry from tonight's display. Taken with a digital camera held over my head to see over the crowd, but uts better than nothing.

http://home.earthlink.net/~parvey/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/fire.jpg
[/URL]
Wow, that's a beautiful picture of really neat fireworks! I haven't seen ones with that many colors in a starburst pattern before. And I like the "confetti" look around it.

The one thing I didn't like about the Pittsburgh fireworks as I watched them on TV (other than the fact I was watching on TV instead of in person) is that they just shot off so many at once during the whole show that you couldn't appreciate the prettier ones. I like it much better as shown in your photo, where they shot up a grouping of the same fireworks, so you can really see what the pattern is. They had some really neat-o fireworks in Pittsburgh, but they were in the middle of a bunch of ordinary, single-color starbursts, so it would have been easy to miss those treats. There were ones that were multi-colored rings, each ring in a different orientation, sort of like the elementary school version of what an atom looks like, but with lots of colors. I really liked those. I've seen ones with one or two rings before, but never 3 or 4, so it looked like a hollow sphere...sort of.
 
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  • #43
Janus said:
My entry from tonight's display. Taken with a digital camera held over my head to see over the crowd, but uts better than nothing.

http://home.earthlink.net/~parvey/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/fire.jpg
[/URL]


WOW! That's GORGEOUS! I'm voting for Janus! :biggrin:
 
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  • #44
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  • #45
I was hoping to get a pic last night, but it just didn't happen. I was working so that kinda crimped my style. My coworkers all went out in the parking lot, ate chicken, hot dogs and potato salad and watched the local , while I drove home to light fuses for my wife and kids. I was pretty time restricted, so was rushing around lighting fireworks as fast as I could, didn't even have time to watch the ones I was setting off. :cry:

I have always opted for watching fireworks live rather then through a camera lens. 4th of July 1986, I was on lower Manhattan Island with a million other people , standing in awe of the fireworks celebrating the centennial of the Statue of Liberty, my camera hanging unused around my neck. That was a fireworks display!but it remains only in my memory.
 
  • #46
I'm going to be posting a picture (by proxy) for contributing member bitjumper that can't get here right now, but he e-mailed me his pictures this morning. Except I can't decide which one to post, do I go for pretty colors or unusual arrangement?

AARRRGH, I can't take the pressure.
 
  • #47
ok, here is the one I'm choosing, it's red only, but some beautiful details.

bitjumper061iu.jpg
 
  • #48
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/6616/jelly8ds.jpg

Is it fireworks that look like jellyfish, or jellyfish that look like fireworks?
 
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  • #49
hypnagogue said:
http://img264.imageshack.us/img264/6616/jelly8ds.jpg

Is it fireworks that look like jellyfish, or jellyfish that look like fireworks?
Oh, not fair! Now I should post my second choice. How the heck did that one happen, the middle look shiny?
 
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  • #50
Just when I thought I had my mind made up over who I would vote for, the whole lot of you has to show up and enter a bunch of great new photos!
 

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