There’s nothing like fireworks and photo buddies to get you out of a funk. We’ve all been there. You know, you feel blah. It was a 2-week funk for me. I went shooting and tried to process the pictures. I was almost caught up!

During the summer, our local minor league team, the River Cats, shoots off fireworks after every Friday night home game. I probably would have skipped the fireworks so close to July 4th, (especially since there would be other evenings of fireworks) but my All About Photography Toastmasters Club was going, and so was I. We met many photographers from the Sacramento Photographers Facebook group too. Actually it ended up being a fun evening.

I was going to try shooting with two cameras. One would be set up on bulb and the other to shoot regular. But, at the last minute I decided to shoot with one. I tried putting it on bulb with a remote trigger, but didn’t like the results. I took it off of bulb and took out the trigger, shooting individually.

I have some of those shots to show you today. Yesterday on July 4th, we had our usual block party, and I was wearing my camera. One of the guests asked me if I was a photographer, and I said, “Yes, I finally feel I can say I’m a photographer.” That was a defining moment for me. I’ll show you some of those too, but they are not super since we were losing light, I didn’t have a tripod, etc. Also, I didn’t shoot the small fireworks because my dog is totally afraid of the sounds. So we watched TV while the others watched the fireworks show.

And, I’m out of the funk!

We never know when the game will end, so we have to be ready.

I think the two fireworks displays on the left each look like the Statue Of Liberty.

I was disappointed that there weren’t many with red, white and blue.

The bridge is the Tower Bridge, a Sacramento landmark.

The field is in West Sacramento, and the best viewing is in Old Sacramento.

Almost the finale. The actual finale had too much smoke.

The July 4 block party. The games begin.

There were games for all ages.

And games for the young at heart.

I’m not sure whether we declared a winner in the Piccolo Pete race.

Here’s a car in action.

The last game before fireworks. The egg toss.

Egg toss in action.

Yes, we use real eggs. This one dropped right near my foot!