Hanabi 花火

I haven't been playing with fireworks for a long time since Malaysia has banned it while I was still a child. Anyway here in Japan, fireworks is a common activity and a must during summer. And I definitely won't miss the chance to pick up my childhood memory.
I went to a place called 松屋町(Matsuyamachi) where all shops along the street are doing wholesales of fireworks. Actually I expected more from this place (is my first time visiting there), but it turn out to be every shop selling almost the same thing, so is a little boring when you find yourself keep looking at the same thing all the time. Anyway, I found many kinds of fireworks which I used to play before, and I just can't help buying them. The price was cheap, compare to normal stall, so we get quiet a lot for our fireworks party tonight.

You can find everything you remembered as a child, and also something new. People are still inventing some new stuff here.

Normal but it was so beautiful

And we were so amazed by this one, they said if you can burn the whole strip without dropping any of it, your wish can be come true!!

Try out some long exposure photographing, and we get a nice "love" here.

So we go for a more difficult mission...but oops we get it wrong...

And finally we get it right!! \(^。^)/

淀川花火大会（Yodogawa Hanabi Taikai）

花火大会(Hanabi Taikai) is a big event during summer in Japan. I went to this one last Saturday with other Malaysian here. Going for Hanabi is fun, but it can be very tiring. You need to go there like 3 to 4 hours earlier to get yourself a good place, and you need to spend like another 3 hours to keep in line waiting for your turn to leave the place, and get a sit in the train. Anyway is worth it. I can't describe it here by words how amazed I was although this not my first time. You really need to be there to see it by yourself.

I have been trying to shoot a fireworks photograph with my digital camera every time I went for Hanabi. But the photos didn't turn out nice. This year I try it again with my DSLR D40. The result, what I can say is, this is the best fireworks photography that I had taken before but it still looks very amateur. Here is some difficulty that I faced, maybe some of you can give me advice on how to get a better shoot!
1. I cannot get a very nice spot, so what I can take is only the fireworks itself, I cannot have other framing except that.
2. It is very hard to catch the right timing when to press the shutter.
3. The smoke is very annoying.
4. The best setting is?? I have my aperture set at f/11 and shutter speed around 1 to 5 secs.

Here is some of the photos that I took that day, hope you enjoy it!I like this one but the photos is a little bit over-expose. If the sky turned out to be darker, it should be better.

Everything is nice except the smoke , is really annoying

Best shot??

I like this one also

Although the color is a little bit dull, but I like the trails leave by the fireworks