Boston's Fourth of July, 2005

In my title for this gallery, I'm deliberately echoing the former corporate name of the organization which has sponsored Boston's Independence Day celebrations for the past thirty years, now inexplicably known as "Boston 4 Celebrations". When Star Market heir David Mugar first got together with Boston Pops conductor Arthur Fiedler, the Pops had been experiencing a steady decline in attendance. Mugar suggested adding Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" to the program -- a piece which has become one of the Pops' signature sounds, right up there with the "Star Wars" theme -- and convinced the Massachusetts National Guard artillery and the Guild of Bell-Ringers at the Church of the Advent to provide additional percussion.

The program for most of that time ended with "1812", leading directly into a pyrotechnic show. After a few years of half-million-plus audiences (more people than actually live in Boston!), Mugar was able to get live television coverage of the event, through a relationship with WCVB-TV, channel 5. (Curiously, the television coverage was never on WNEV-TV, channel 7, even when Mugar owned the station.) Channel 5 was eventually sold to Hearst, which had a one-third interest in the A&E cable channel, and so the entire broadcast was seen live nationwide.

A few years ago, the television contract was renegotiated, and the broadcast rights went to CBS and WBZ-TV. (At the same time, radio broadcast rights moved from classical FM WCRB to news-talk AM WBZ, about which this writer can make no comment since he's never seen much value in listening to fireworks on the radio.) While the increased national exposure has been welcome, the program compromises demanded by CBS have been roundly criticized by local audiences. CBS only televises the last hour of the program nationally, which has meant the exile of "1812" to before the intermission (apparently national audiences are incapable of appreciating Tchaikovsky), and the selection of guest performers has emphasized country stars (or this year, country unknowns) who have little or no connection to or audience in Boston.

Not all of the changes in recent years have been for the worse. Having all of the uninteresting national programming concentrated in the last 35 minutes of the musical program gives fireworks afficionados like yours truly the opportunity to escape the confines of the Oval in front of the Hatch Shell and relocate to a better viewing location -- the trees surrounding the Oval block most views of the fireworks presentation. Since 2002, security has been stepped up at the event, with the salutary effect that seating on the Oval itself is now strictly limited, so one need not spend the entire day on the Esplanade just to be able to see the concert. I arrived this time at 10:30 AM, got my wristband, took a few daylight shots of the crowd, and left, not to return until 7 PM with the concert an hour from starting.

A word about the photos: these are part of the first group of photos I've taken with my new camera. As a result, they are technically not what I should be capable of. I'm still fine-tuning both my shooting skills with the new setup, and also my post-processing scripts, so the presentation here is somewhat experimental. I shot about 460 frames over the course of the evening, of which about 100 were good enough to present here, although I'm only particularly fond of one or two. The camera is a Canon EOS 350D (a/k/a "Digital Rebel XT" because too many of my fellow Americans are sheep who respond to that sort of marketing nonsense). The images in this gallery were all shot through a Tokina 24-200 f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens. This turned out not to be fast enough to take good shots of the Pops concert; you'll see very few recognizable faces among the musicians. (Next year I'll remedy that, probably with a combination of tripod, faster lens, and better seat!) The fireworks were all shot at 24 mm, with focus locked at infinity, and manual exposures of 1/5 to 1/8 second, f/5.6, at ISO 1600. Next time around, I'll try exposure-priority mode instead. (Any other tips would be gratefully accepted.)

For those who are not familiar with my practice on these galleries: there are two sizes presented: 720x480 and 1152x768; I keep the original image files for private use and relicensing. I do not process or in any way alter the images you see here, except for elementary (and automatic) scaling and rotation. If this were one of my normal travellogues, each image would be accompanied by an extended description; since there isn't much more to say about most of these photos (the fireworks in particular), I'll not be putting my usual effort into description.

Just a reminder: it is unlawful to use these images in any other form or Web site, and I will send takedown notices to the providers in question if I see my photos used elsewhere without my consent (which is usually given when people bother to ask).