Will Robb Photography

Summer in Japan is firework season. All the big displays in Tokyo, especially the sumidagawa fireworks in Asakusa are packed with people hours in advance of the start of the show, then after 2 hours of literally thousands of fireworks going off (some events have 20′000 fireworks) everyone scrambles for the trains and everything grinds to a halt. I’ve been caught out there before, been jostled about in the streets, not been able to get back into the station, had to walk a few kilometers to the next station, not so much fun.

This year I went to the slightly less crowded Adachi ward fireworks that were held on July 23rd on the Arakawa river between Kitasenju and Kosuge stations. Here is one of the top 3 displays in terms of size of display and every year it gets more and more crowded. I headed down early to get a good spot, most people choose to be as close as possible to the action and tens of thousands of people cram in between 2 bridges on each side of the river, some slightly better off people arrive on their boats to be directly below the action and the super rich look down from above in their helicopters, or even a zepllin as the uber wealthy do. I was slightly less classy, below a railway bridge about 300 meters from the main crowd, surrounded by drunken homeless from the area who kept asking me if I was French. Despite this, it was a good spot. It offered a nice view of the whole event and more importantly it proved covers from the occasional rain shower that passed over.

Anyway, for shooting fireworks from that distance I needed my canon 80-200mm F2.8L lens, a tripod and a cable release. Fireworks look best at night and you need a good long exposure (about 3-5 second) and a small aperture, I found F 22 was good. With canon products, all the lenses are pretty good, but the L series (L being for luxury, usually identifiable by the red circle the goes round the lens near the hood) are a cut above. Yes, they are more expensive, but if you are looking to sell your shots you need the sharpest photos you can get. For shutter speed I tried a few shots with my EOS 5D Mk II on automatic iso, but it kept defaulting to a high speed, usually 3200 and there was just a bit too much noise, so I opted for a manual setting of 800. With slow exposures like this, a tripod is an obvious essential. Also, if you have a DSLR, a cable release for your shutter instead of pressing the shutter button on the camera is a big help as it takes away shake from you shot. I’ve added in some of my favourite shots from the night.