So what's the deal with...

I know, a shitty way to start a post, but yeah. So what is the deal with people trying to take pictures of fireworks?

I’m down over around the west side of Manhattan, not having anything better to do when it hits me that the fireworks are about to start in half an hour. So I follow the rest of the sheep, hundreds slowly marching towards the Hudson River. Around 11th or 12th avenue we run out of street to walk as it’s packed with folks sitting on sidewalks and cops swarming the place. Figured I had a decent enough view of the sky so decided that was a good a place as any, across the street from the northeast corner of the Javits Center.

A nice warm summer breeze wafting by. A generally peaceful and jovial mood around. And the smell of hot dogs all around, two carts within a hundred feet doing business. Then that familiar whistle rings down the street, everyone rushes to their feet and the explosions begin. I will say fireworks are a cool thing, I've been missing out these twenty-something years. Actual fireworks, those things are loud and just create a very satisfying rumble, and the light in the sky they create are a sight. Once it began I quickly realized how pointless those television simulcasts I used to watch as a kid were. It’s akin to a roller coaster or porn, watching it just ain't the same. I enjoyed being a part of that today.

All that being said, what’s the deal with these fools with their cameras feebly trying to take pictures of it? You guys have a chance to watch this majestic spectacle in person and what do you do? Watch it through a shitty three inch display while firing away at the shutter, and getting shit for pictures. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with photographers doing their job, but I look at this sea of people filling up this street and at least one in four have that telltale glow of an lcd illuminating their faces. I got some dude to the left of me popping a flash every minute, always chimping down at the screen to take a glance at another lame shot, then trying again.

I mean, you have a multi-million dollar television crew shooting everything, you have dudes with the proper lenses and tripods probably taking way better shots from rooftops, you ain’t gonna get shit in the middle of the street with that thousand dollar camera loaded with the stock lens while shooting at the shutter speed a flash would induce. Why bother? I assume it’s because they have to try and justify that thousand dollar purchase, have something to show the friends when they get back home.

But why bother? You’re missing the forest for the trees. It ain’t about the fireworks man, it’s about the fireworks.

Yeah. Happy Fourth of July, folks.