The Cemetery in Young, Arizona

now happening, another #haboob rolling into #Phoenix near #skyhabor

View from Lyle R. Fish Point – perhaps there will be a #storm with lots of #lightning

From the last happy hour @trader_Vics in #Scottsdale – one more “Suffering Bastard”…

there may be a storm brewing later – awesome sunset clouds – #iPhone #photo doesn’t do it justice

getting ready for a #photo shoot

Butterfly close-up #photo with #iPhone 4

The 4th of July celebration in Zionsville was a blast. It was probably the best Independence Day I have experienced since moving to the US. The weather was perfect and there was a lot going on at Lions Park. From music entertainment, to fun-stuff for the kids and great food – everything was covered.

The fireworks started around 10pm and lasted a pretty long time -  exactly 41 frames at 15 second exposures with my Sigma DP1. The DP1 actually is pretty capable to do some low light photography (of course it has its limitations) and occasionally I got some frames with the “Foveon Grid”. But considering the size and limitations of the Sigma DP1 I am very happy with the results.

For the fireworks I wasn’t completely unprepared (compared to my first Lightning Shots of 2011 with my Sigma DP1) and in anticipation I bought a crappy little “flex-bendi” type of tripod for a couple of bucks.

Lions Park is a great community park and for the Independence Day celebrations it was very crowded. I spotted numerous tripods and folks with their DSLR’s setting up at the south-end of the park where the firworks were going to be launched. Great close-up views, however I really didn’t want a baseball field with fencing , batting cages and huge stadium-style sodium/mercury-vapor lamps as my back-drop for the fireworks.

I also wasn’t too fond of the idea having porter potties in the frame. So I followed one of my golden rules to find a spot where no photographer was to be found – and that was a little bit away, to the north of the park. Luckily there was a great sign-post there where I could clamp the mini-tripod onto…

After finding my ideal spot for photographing the fireworks, I headed back to the spot where we set up our lawn chairs and simply enjoyed a great mid-western Independence Day celebration until the fireworks began.

The Balloon over Conner Prairie

An image of the Conner Prairie Balloon floating fairly high in the Sky. This image was taken at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park near Fishers, Indiana.