Longleat Fireworks

I was invited by Longleat to photograph their first fireworks event in 2011 from the VIP enclosure, I accepted the invitation but not the location from which to photgraph them. They had their own photgrapher there but afterwards asked to use mine in their book, and on the sides of a double decker bus. What had made the difference was that during the day I pinpointed the exact position from which the fireworks would be going off, and with the use of Google maps pinpointed the line which would put Longleat House and lake in the foreground. It wasn't rocket science, it just needed forethought. I was invited again in subsequent years, maintaining the position except for a change one year when I photographed the fireworks with them coming over the top of the house, and another from Heaven's Gate (that didn't work as well but an example is included here). All the photographs were taken with 3 or 4 second exposures, and of course using a tripod. Ten years on I have better camera equipment, so should take better photographs, but everyone interested in photography now photographs the fireworks from the lakeside position.

Longleat fireworks photographed from Heaven's Gate, shooting far above the house not such a good position.