Last day of 2018, first of 2019 | Scene Through the Lens

Last year’s New Year’s fireworks was the coldest assignment I had worked in decades (well, there was the sub-zero vodka bar made entirely of ice, but is was only in it for 5 minutes). I was in an elevated position, with no ambient light. And did I say it was really cold? I had to juggle a strobe to get just a tiny bit of light on the xxxx-watchers around me, plus keep changing my exposure from shorter to longer shutter speeds. So I kept taking my gloves off.

This year it was warmer. But raining. I was on the Philadelphia side to the Delaware River, so this year I decided to cover the fireworks from the New Jersey side.

There was county prison on the land just north of the Ben Franklin Bridge in Camden, so for the almost 20 years it was there you couldn’t just ride up and shoot from there. It was torn down three years ago, and they built a playground and a park on the site. I had photographed the Philadelphia skyline from there before, but no one from the newspaper had shot a river fireworks from it.

Besides the midnight pyrotechnics display, they also have one a 6 p.m. I suppose it’s not just for legacy print products like mine with earlier deadlines, but it was still nice of them.

I drove there and hour early (after banging my car driving over a curb I didn’t see as I drove down a puddled street that just dead-ended without any sign or other warning). There was just one car in the rainy parking lot. Walking over to the waterfront in the dark, rain, and fog, right away I saw that only the buildings right on the waterfront were visible. No skyline. But the bridge has pretty lights turned on, and they made a cool reflection in the river, so I figured it might just work out. I took a picture with my iPhone.

Then I got insecure. Did I need people? Sure, I wanted some, but was pretty enough? Where exactly would the fireworks explode in the sky? How high would they be from this angle? I sent the photo I’d taken and texted two of my co-workers who I knew had shot in recent years (but like I said, not from the old prison site) and with their recollections along with my own experience, I tried to extrapolate in my mind where the the fireworks might explode in the air.

Then I got more indecisive and took a quick drive over to the south side of the bridge, where the aquarium and office buildings were, and I knew would be full of people, even in the rain. Sure enough, lots of cars and people walking up. There were even signs - “Fireworks Parking- $10.”

I decided immediately I would go with the new, and different location. So I drive back under the bridge. There were a few more cars, and you would expect in the rain, the people were waiting inside them. I wondered briefly is they would watch the fireworks between swishes of their wiper blades? Would that make a picture? If they got out, would they all just stand by their cars and watch, or would they walk down to the water’s edge? As it was now about 10 minutes before the hour, I headed out with my umbrella and monopod (I wanted to be able to quickly run anywhere along the 150 or so yards of waterfront to get the best position).

The first thing I discovered after sloshing through the wet grass (for the second time) was that the tide must have come in during the 45 minutes I was away! The really pretty reflections of the bridge lights were gone. I realized that earlier when I looked out there was more logs and flotsam (or jetsam?) there. And in looking closer at my iPhone photo that the reflections were not in the water, but on a thin wet film over really flat mud. And now it was water, with waves.

The second thing I discovered, as the fireworks were about to start was that there were people there now. Two of them at least. Priyo Palit of Stratford, N.J. with his camera on a tripod and wife, Sonika. I am including their names here in case they google themselves someday they will find my photos, because (spoiler alert) they were never published and I didn’t get their email or cell phone number.

Turning around, I saw another group of spectators had since walked over from their cars, and still with my monopod was able to get into position to photograph them watching. Luckily there were lots of street lights in the park (it was a desolate place - perfect for location a prison) so I had plenty of ambient light, so unlike the year before, I didn’t need to strobe the people. I used a Nikon D4s, with a 24-120mm f/4 Nikkor lens, at around a 35mm focal length, 1/8 second exposure at f/9 with ISO 2500.

Up the next morning, not real early as I was one of six Inquirer staff photographers covering the 119th New Year’s Day Mummers Parade in Philadelphia.

For years now when I’ve talked to camera clubs and photography students I am always asked, “the people in all your photos all look so natural and comfortable. How do you how do you take pictures of perfect stranger? Do you use trick lenses. Or a telephoto?” I can tell it’s not a question about camera technique, so I gently explain that I’ve been doing it a long time now, but when I started out, I also found it awkward to walk up to people I didn’t know and start talking to them or start taking their picture or start talking to them. I tell them to practice at festivals, or Comic Con, or Halloween or Cosplay or Steampunk events, where participants love to be photographed (even better if you’re in costume too, wth say a vintage 1890s La Parisienne Carette camera).

Then there’s the Mummers. Black & White or color. Stills or video. Digital or film. Large format or disposable. Smart phone or tablet. You can shoot with your eyes closed and still get wonderful photos - of people! National news organizations outside of Philadelphia describe it as a “believed to be the oldest continuously held folk parade in the country and features Mardi Gras-style performers dressed in colorful costumes of sequins and feathers.”

Our first photographer out hit the South Philadelphia street where many of the clubs are headquarters at 6 a.m. The assignment I drew this year wasn’t that early, as it was the indoors Fancy Brigade part of the Mummers Parade. This group features Broadway-style production numbers indoors, with elaborate staging, props, scenery, smoke, lighting effects, videos, and choreographed dancing. With lots of colorful costumes of sequins and feathers.

Here are some of my favorites from the finale. There is gallery at the bottom with more than five dozen photos from the six of us.