A Long, Hot Wait for New York Fireworks

This picture, I truly believe, captures the three men of the Shaver Family with absolute perfection. I’m blogging it. I’m Facebooking it. I’m putting it in my album. I’m printing one to keep on my bedside table. I love it.

Just goes to show, you never know how a mom will react to photographs of her family. I took it just before sunset on July 4th as we waited for the Macy’s Fireworks to start.

The walk down to the Hudson was, let’s just say, a little on the warm side.

But once we got to the river, it really wasn’t bad at all. In fact, it was quite nice by the water. Yay!

For future reference, if you should go to New York to see the fireworks: here are a few tips:

Despite the fact that all the Web sites said that DeWitt Clinton Park would be a great place to view the fireworks from, once we got there, every entrance was heavily guarded by police repeating the phrase, “Handicapped Only.” (So we headed to Riverside Park instead.) Lesson learned: don’t trust the official web sites!

Bring sunscreen, umbrella, blanket, baby wipes, water and something to do, like chalk, a ball, cards and maybe a portable air conditioner. Ha!

If you’re coming from New Jersey, don’t drive. Take the train. It’s really not so bad, and we were home just over an hour after the fireworks were over. (Car would have taken forever!)

If you’re planning to watch from Riverside Park, stay south of the Sanitation building, or go way north of it. It blocks the view of the river reflections.

That’s the West Side Highway the police are standing on. They were there in full uniform all afternoon. I did not complain of being hot.

We had some nice seats for the day!

The little bird must have liked us.

They weren’t even feeding him!

I love this picture.

This one too!

They were going to find me some ice cream, which they did! Yay!

We were thinking those people had the best seats!

Brad liked the flag plane. Simple message, huh?

More police standing guard on the West Side Highway. But look at the building in the background…

… I want THOSE seats!

Coming back with my ice cream. Yay!

It was enough ice cream for the whole family, actually, in that one cup.

The area next to where we were sitting was blocked off to protect the baby geese, but I never saw any geese, no babies and no big ones either. But it was kind of nice that the walk way was blocked. It kept our area a rather private oasis.

Yay! The light is starting to get soft and FUN FUN FUN for us photographers!

Have iPod, will travel anywhere.

I don’t think I’ve ever had such a good time waiting for the sun to disappear.

Goodnight sun.

Looking north, we could see the George Washington Bridge.

And a pier covered with people who had a pretty good viewing spot.

This falling down pier looks like modern art to me.

I loved watching the light changing on the buildings.

This one was taken about 27 minutes after the one above.

I was having a very good time watching the sunset.

Love the angles in this shot. It was interesting to see the cloud highlights change from orange to pink. (The fireworks, we later learned, would be popping up just over the building. We should have been further south for an unobstructed view.)

Greg was waving at people in the planes and boats.

I loved the light! Yay sunset light!

Wow! Love this one!

Love this one too, with the seagrass in the foreground. By the way, for those of you unfamiliar with the geography here — that’s New Jersey on the other side of the Hudson.

Yay! Fireworks started! I actually liked the way the angles of the building played off the angles of the fireworks shooting off of four different barges way down the Hudson. It gives my New York City Fireworks pictures a little different look from others. (I can rationalize anything!)

Love the clarity.

Across the river, the building caught my eye as it changed colors reflecting the fireworks.

I changed lenses for a closer look. Cool!

I love all the colors this year. I noticed some new colors I hadn’t seen in previous fireworks displays — pink and orange for example

Can I just ask a question? How do they DO it? I mean, how do fireworks work?

The interesting thing about New York City fireworks is the choreography of the fireworks on four barges. How do they do THAT?

Close up.

Lots of cool shapes this year too, like this cube or maybe it was supposed to be a pyramid. Not sure. There were smiley faces too — but I somehow managed to miss photographing those.

This is my favorite. Not sure what it’s really called, but the kids behind me would shout, “Bow tie!” every time they saw one.

Tried a faster shutter speed to see how I liked that effect.

That’s another one with a fast shutter speed.

Nah, I think I like the show shutter speeds better.

Trails are prettier.

Going into New York to see the Macy’s fireworks display was a lot of fun, but my absolute favorite fireworks experience was last year’s. It was awesome! Click here for THAT fun Shaver Family evening!

All in all, it was a great day with the family. Ok, I’m off to send the top picture to the printer now. I love my family!