One of the biggest attraction in Disneyland parks is not the rides, but the fireworks.

Everyday they throw fireworks show in the evening. Around 8pm. And it is such a pleasant way to end the all-day visit in the park.

I’ve come prepared. I brought my tripod and set it up early to reserve a spot. We occupied the spot more than an hour before the show began. We even bought and brought our dinner from nearby restaurant to eat there.

Wise decision. As at 07.30 pm, the place was packed. No more spaces to get angle of the castle and the possible fireworks.

15 minutes to fireworks I set up my gear. I have my phone ready to remotely control the camera. Since pressing the shutter button might move the camera.

I put my camera on ISO400, and f/11 to ensure sufficient sharpness. Then I metered the lights. To get the castle properly exposed, my camera told me I need to set the speed to 1-2 seconds. Which looks to be a good setup, as it’s normally the range of speed you would set for fireworks photo: not too fast to enable you to catch the fire trails, but also not too slow to blur the entire fireworks.

Only then comes the unexpected.

They do image projection on the castle. To ‘paint’ the castle in varying colors and project the images and videos throughout the show. And it changed very frequently. Hence, most of my shot got the castle “blurred”, as it captured the moving lights.

But luckily, since I took many shots, I managed to get some decent pictures. Take a look!