I realized after I posted this page that it sounds like Alachua had a "dud" of a fireworks display - that's far from the truth. It was our location for viewing the fireworks that caused the "fizzle".
Journaling: July 4, 2016 - This Independence Day was sort of a “fizzle” for us this year. We were going to Savannah and then Trooper got sick so we cancelled. Alachua has "The Largest Small Town Fireworks Display in America," according to the city’s website. We’d been to this display a couple of times in the past and it is really nice. This year Jim decided we’d drive to the Lowe’s parking lot which is on a hill overlooking Alachua. A lot of other people had the same idea with many sitting in chairs or on blankets on the grass outside the hedge that surrounds the parking lot. I couldn’t find a good location to set up my tripod - the hedge was too high to put the tripod on the parking lot, so I had to try to set it up in the raised hedge bed. Then there was a big tree in my line of sight to most of the fireworks. Finally I ended up resting my back against the rear of Jim’s SUV, holding the tripod against my body, and taking pictures that way. These are the sad results. Usually we are sitting on the balcony of a hotel room overlooking the celebration (in Savannah, St. Pete Beach, Jacksonville) and I get around 100 shots with 10-20 really great ones. These three examples are the best of 10 shots that weren’t just black sky! Maybe if I hadn’t had to breathe while holding the tripod against my body....
Credits: Template: July 2015 Template and “Carpe Diem”, Little Rad Trio; Party in the USA, Blue Heart Scraps; "Away We Go", Collab; "Baseball" & "Life's a Journey", Connie Prince
