Rodney Campbell's Blog

The Sydney New Years Eve fireworks are always spectacular no matter where on the harbour you find yourself on New Years Eve.

The view of the midnight fireworks from Cremorne Point on Sydney’s lower north shore looking across the harbour to the Sydney CBD, the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Midnight Fireworks

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm, 1.8 to 15 sec at f/11 & f/8, ISO 100 x 17 Frames

The view of the 9PM family fireworks from Cremorne Point looking across the harbour to the Sydney Opera House and the city

9PM Fireworks

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm, 1 to 18 sec at f/11, ISO 100 x 25 Frames

I’ve posted some tips for fireworks photography before – but to summarise:
– use a tripod and a remote/cable release
– low ISO
– f/8 to f/16
– manual focus
– bulb mode – open shutter just before and close at end of bursts

… but… some other things to consider…
– you don’t want to open the shutter for too long or you’ll get a mass of overlapping and overexposed fireworks (instead of coloured streaks you’ll get clipped white) – it’s very tempting to hold it open for a little more to just get a bit more fireworks in
– pro tip – you also don’t want to have too short a shutter – you might get nicely exposed fireworks but it will be just floating in a sea of black. For these shots with the city skyline in them I wanted enough of the ambient to expose the city as well as the reflections on the water and so on. I look for that break between the end of a flurry of activity and the launching of the next so I open the shutter when nothing is happening giving the ambient some time to expose before the bursts happen and I close

So 2014 has arrived and in Sydney it’s the time for the annual pilgrimage to the harbour to watch the New Years Eve fireworks.

Note: These images (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger – so click any of the images below to see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer.

This year I joined Gerry at Cremorne Point for the early 9PM family fireworks and then the midnight masterpiece. I left it fairly late leaving home after dinner at around 7:15PM and drove over to Neutral Bay where I parked up near Military Road. I’d packed my daughters bike in the back of the car so I could ride down to Cremorne Point.

After arriving at around 8PM it was time to rece the area looking for somewhere suitable to setup the tripods with a decent view across the harbour to the main fireworks attractions – the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and the city itself. I found a good spot right down on the water and Gerry joined me soon after.

From the 9PM fireworks – I was hoping for a little twilight colour in the sky – unfortunately it was much too late for that

Pink Blush

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm, 8.20 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Fire in Lavender

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 50 mm, 5.40 sec at f/11, ISO 100

To make use of some of the time between the 9PM and midnight fireworks displays Gerry and I did a little light painting with the interesting foreground rock we had out in the water in front of our position

Sydney NYE

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 26 mm, 97 sec at f/11, ISO 100

The midnight fireworks in full swing – we ended up having a pretty decent view of the action unobstructed by a lot of water craft

Blue Velvet

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm, 7.70 sec at f/11, ISO 100

Red Cascade

NIKON D600 + 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 @ 32 mm, 4.10 sec at f/8, ISO 100