I love fireworks and find it very challenging to take good photographs of them. In Basel there are at least three events every year which climax in large fireworks displays: the Swiss National Day Celebrations on the river Rhine (every July 31, Canton Basel-Stadt), the Swiss National Day Celebrations on Bruderholz (every August 1, Canton Basel-Land), and the New Year Celebrations at the river Rhine (in the night between December 31 and January 1). When the celebrations take place at the Rhine, the fireworks are launched from two boots on the river. On Bruderholz the rockets are launched from a fenced in area on the rim of an amphitheater. The fireworks display on Bruderholz is usually more ‘comfy/unhurried’ than that on the Rhine. Different effects follow each other [as opposed to ‘take place simultaneously’ or ‘overlap’] and, thus, are a lot easier to photograph. Nevertheless, photographing fireworks is a lot of guesswork. Without knowing the screen play it is difficult to predict where and when the next rocked will explode.
