Disney Wishes – Photographing Fireworks

Photo Story: Capturing the Magic of Disney Fireworks

For my first blog post, I wanted to bring together three of my favourite things: photography, Disney and fireworks.

I’ve always loved watching fireworks displays, but in my opinion, few can match the scale, atmosphere and sheer spectacle of the nightly show at Magic Kingdom in Florida.

After a full day exploring the rides and attractions, there’s something special about finding a spot, watching the castle light up and ending the day beneath a sky full of colour. For a photographer, though, the fireworks bring an extra challenge: trying to capture that fleeting moment when everything comes together.

And that’s exactly what I was trying to do with this shot.

The challenge of a long exposure

Fireworks photography can be surprisingly unforgiving. With long exposures, you only get a handful of real opportunities to capture the image you have in your head.

An exposure might last anywhere from 20 to 90 seconds, and with a show lasting around 10 minutes, there simply isn’t time for endless experimentation. Get the timing, composition or exposure wrong and that opportunity is gone.

There are different approaches to fireworks photography. Some photographers prefer a single burst against a clean background, while others—myself included—love the drama of filling the entire frame with colour, light and movement.

For this image, I wanted the latter.

Getting the shot

To capture the image, I used a few essential pieces of equipment:

• DSLR camera

• Tripod

• Shutter release cable

• ND100 filter

The tripod was absolutely essential. This was an 80-second exposure, which is obviously impossible to hand-hold while keeping the image sharp.

The shutter release cable allowed me to control the shutter without touching the camera, reducing the risk of camera shake. The ND filter was equally important. By reducing the amount of light reaching the sensor, it allowed me to keep the shutter open for much longer without completely blowing out the highlights.

Setting up

The first step was to mount the camera on the tripod and compose the shot. I also turned off the lens’s image stabilisation.

It’s important to frame the image before attaching the ND filter. Once the filter is in place, it becomes extremely difficult to see anything through the viewfinder.

I switched the lens to manual focus and focused on infinity, as I was some distance from the castle. The shutter release cable was then connected and ready to go.

Once I was happy with the composition, I attached the ND filter and set the camera up for the long exposure.

For this particular shot, I used:

Bulb mode · f/20 · ISO 100 · 80 seconds

Bulb mode gave me complete control over the length of the exposure, which was exactly what I needed.

Waiting for the moment

And then came the hardest part: waiting.

There’s no way to know exactly how the fireworks will build during the show, so timing becomes a bit of a gamble. I waited for the right moment, triggered the shutter and then let the exposure run.

The result was the intense, colourful image I had been hoping for—a frame packed with fireworks and light.

For less intense fireworks displays, where you might only need a 5- or 6-second exposure, an ND filter probably isn’t necessary. But for this particular image, I wanted to push the long-exposure effect as far as I could.

Sometimes, capturing fireworks isn’t about freezing a single explosion in the sky. It’s about collecting several moments together and turning them into one photograph.

And for me, that’s what makes this kind of photography so much fun.