It's US Independence Day: Time to celebrate and photograph spectacular fireworks

Today, in the United States we'll celebrate our nation's birth. In Philadelphia, America’s birthplace and it's first capital, that means the annual “Philly 4th of July Jam and Grand Finale Fireworks” held at the foot of the Philadelphia Museum of Art tonight, where more than a half million Philadelphians and visitors will enjoy one of the country's best Independence Day concerts. This year it will star The Roots, Ed Sheeran, Nicki Minaj, Jennifer Hudson, Aloe Blacc, Ariana Grande and Vicci Martinez performing live, with actor and comedian Marlon Wayans serving as host, followed by one of the largest, most spectacular fireworks displays in the nation.

I'll be there. If you're there too, look for me south of the Art Museum.

This year I'm going to continue experimenting while photographing the fireworks. I'm going to use a variety of neutral density filters to enable me to use longer exposures, and capture more fireworks' bursts in my images. I'll be experimenting with neutral density filters which add 1, 2, or 3 f/stops to my exposure. I'll explain below what that means in terms of shutter times.

Traveling in the US: July 4th, and its fireworks are just days away

Next week, in the United States we'll celebrate our nation's birth. In Philadelphia, America’s birthplace and it's first capital, that means after a concert at the foot of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, more than a half million people will enjoy one of the largest, most spectacular fireworks displays in the nation.

I'll be there. If you're there too, look for me south of the Art Museum.

This year I'm going to be experimenting while photographing the fireworks at the Art Museum. I'm going to use some neutral density filters to enable me to use longer exposures, enabling me to capture more fireworks' bursts in my images. I'll be experimenting with neutral density filters which add 1, 2, or 3 f/stops to my exposure. I'll explain below what that means in terms of shutter times.

Lenses for Travel Photography - Part VI (Special lenses and lens accessories)

This week in Part VI of my seven part series about lenses for travel photography, I discuss special lenses and lens accessories to consider when choosing lenses for travel. The series is primarily meant for SLR and DSLR camera users, who can attach a variety of lenses to their cameras to support their creativity, and suit the needs of their photographic opportunities.

It’s important to note there are many more lenses and lens accessories available for your consideration than I will discuss below, but the ones I have chosen have utility during travel, and are carried by some travelers, according to their needs.

Three lenses possible lenses for travelers include: fisheye, perspective control, and teleconverter.

Do filters for digital cameras make sense?

Before the advent of high quality digital cameras, professionals, and advanced amateur film photographers traditionally used filters to modify both the color and intensity of light exposing the film, as well as to generate special effects.

Digital cameras operate in a different world with respect to color. Photographers can easily modify color in their cameras, or during post processing in their computers, via controlling white balance for scene color accuracy or effect.

Warming, cooling, and filters which convert fluorescent light to look like daylight, may be required for film, but digital cameras can achieve the same effects by their internal manipulation of the image’s digital data.

The use of traditional photography filters for modifying the color of the light, is unnecessary for digital photography, but other filters can work well for digital photography.