Front-row seat to Charleston Harbor fireworks on the Fourth

Carrie, Julia and I visited some friends on the Fourth for some food, swimming and fireworks in downtown Charleston.

  Those friends and their friends live within walking distance from Charleston Harbor, over which the fireworks were shot.

So we walked to the Maritime Center, where a concrete pier juts into the water.

The crowd of spectators was manageable.

So, we got a clear view across the harbor.

The fireworks were blasted from the Mount Pleasant side of the harbor, giving people over there a slightly better view.

But we had some children who don't like loud noises, so a little distance was a good thing.

The only concern was that the little ones would tumble over the side of the pier because it did not have a railing at parts.

But some local firefighters were there watching the display from the pier as well, so any child overboard would have been rescued promptly.

As for the steady barrage of fireworks, they were pretty cool.

Some other towns' displays were visible in the distance.

I used a zoom lens set to about 70mm and oriented vertically to get some shots.

I used the tripod I got for Christmas (replacement for the one that was stolen) and a wired trigger to eliminate some blurriness.

After the show, we moved out quickly. But I took a second to get one quick shot of the pyrotechnics smoke wafting over the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. The show organizers were criticized last year because some people couldn't see the fireworks from Mount Pleasant's Patriots Point. So, they moved the origin spot. Unfortunately, that made the angle such that I couldn't get any of the fireworks in the same shot as the bridge. Bummer there, but it was a stellar show regardless.