Fireworks and my Nikon

Here’s my story on the attempts to capture fireworks on my Nikon camera during Singapore’s 2006 National Day.

My first attempt on 5 Aug was at Esplanade.  As my family was having dinner outside, we decided on a restaurant just 1 minute away from the bay, thinking that we could just walk out and watch the fireworks when it starts.  Oh how wrong that was!  When I came out of the restaurant, it was so crowded that all I could see were the palm trees.  Needless to say, I have got nothing decent to show.  I’m too embarassed to show them.

My second attempt was on 8 Aug.  This time, I chose a more remote location at Marina South.  The view was not obstructed, and seems to be the choice of many photographers.  I have 100 over pictures this time, but still not decent enough.  The shutter speed seems to be too long, and photos show too much of a trail in the fireworks.

I still have 2 more opportunities.  Yup, Singapore is having 4 fireworks this year.

One thing I found out was that most cameras have their own proprietary formats for RAW files.  Hence I had problems trying to download the raw files from my Nikon D50 to my Linux machine.  After searching on the Internet for a while, I found Dave Coffin.  He who has written dcraw to decrypt/decompress RAW file formats from so many camera vendors.  Now I can see the terrible pictures that I took with my camera!

Thanks Dave!