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ctgoldwing
16th of July 2005 (Sat), 08:13
I have wanted to shoot the fireworks over Mount Rushmore for some time now. This year I made it the goal of my cross country motorcycle trip. Quite honestly I have mixed feelings about the results.

From the fireworks display over Mount Rushmore on July 3rd. Shot with a 1D MKII tripod mounted with remote release 70-200mm f2.8 IS lens.

http://www.molaver.org/photos/rushmore/01.jpg
http://www.molaver.org/photos/rushmore/16.jpg

I selected 32 that I liked the best & posted them here:
http://www.molaver.org/mount_rushmore_fireworks_display_1.htm
Rick Baker
16th of July 2005 (Sat), 08:30
Some nice shots there in your series. I don't know if that's the best angle though and some photos zoomed more in on the faces with some fireworks above would be better. I don't know if you were in a situation to do that though. I was up there in September and wish I had the opportunity to shoot Mount Rushmore with fireworks above.
ctgoldwing
16th of July 2005 (Sat), 13:09
Some nice shots there in your series. I don't know if that's the best angle though and some photos zoomed more in on the faces with some fireworks above would be better. I don't know if you were in a situation to do that though. I was up there in September and wish I had the opportunity to shoot Mount Rushmore with fireworks above.

Rick thanks for your comments. The long story short - I was told by a park ranger to get there before 11am in order to get a good vantage point to shoot from. My son & I arrived on our motorcycles at 10:30. The park was already full & they wouldn't allow anymore entries. We parked in between two cars on the road (parking on the road was already 1-1/2 miles away from Rushmore). We found this small hill with a good vantage point of the monument. Granted it is off to one side. There was a very large rock ourcropping that I think would have been better however lugging all the gear up in the morning was the easy part - we had to consider climbing down in the pitch black to leave. Perhaps if I was a more serious photographer we would have, lol. As it was we 'sat there' for over 10 hours before the fireworks began.