tips on shooting fireworks

[mediyoga]

Its Diwali time ( festival of lights) in India and need tips on shooting fireworks.
I gathered a few details
1) bulb setting with a cable release 3- 4 sec
2) F8

My question- How the hell do we know where its gonna burst - how can we keep the focus? when we do not know at which point its gonna blow?

[pagnamenta]

I usually look through the camera for the first shot and set the camera to manual focus. As for when they burst, you have watch it go up in the air. You can usually hear a boom before you see any effect. With an exposure of 3-4 secons, you can pretty much cover the firework even if you are a bit early on the shutter release. I know when I shot, I had a lot of shutter speeds around 1 second. Play around a bit in the beginning and you'll get the hang of it.

[noyjimi]

My question- How the hell do we know where its gonna burst - how can we keep the focus? when we do not know at which point its gonna blow?

You'll know after a few bursts where in the sky it is going to be and focus to infinity. Share some images ok Krishna?

[mediyoga]

Noy-
I will def post images if I get them! this is my first attempt at fireworks - dunno if its going to work! need luck-----
a stupid question- pardon me- how do we set the focus to infinity on 30 D?
thanks