58 NEBRASKAland • JULY 2018
A
t some point, I lost
my enthusiasm for
fireworks. Admittedly,
for a period of
childhood, I was
something of an addict. After
raiding the parents' coin jar,
I would join a friend to be
first in line when the Danbury
fireworks stand opened each
day leading up to the Fourth
of July.
Tanks, Black Cats, Roman
candles, grenades, parachutes.
The options blew my mind
– just as the firecrackers
sometimes numbed my fingers.
I suppose the disappearance
of the coin jar and the whole
"using my own money to buy
them" thing had something
to do with my waning
enthusiasm.
As a photographer, however,
the opportunity to capture
images of bursting spectacles
of light in the sky is hard to
resist on this holiday. While
my kids have lobbied to shoot
off fireworks of their own,
coincidentally purchased
with their parents' money, the
bigger displays have attracted
the camera and me.
Last Fourth, after
photographing others' pricy
fireworks over our hometown
of Chadron with the landmark
C-Hill as a backdrop, I
returned to our front yard to
find my 10-year-old daughter
working through an assortment
I grudgingly purchased earlier
that day – yes, a real bargain
that even had some snakes and
sparklers.
Having burned through the few larger pieces in the box
while surely wishing her dad were not such a cheapskate,
she resorted to that box of sparklers. My mind again turned
to photography, and those sparklers brought fun back to the
scene.
The camera captured pretty photos of the "big fireworks"
over our picturesque city that night, but this patriotic
long exposure created in our front
yard with a cheap sparkler, the
"penmanship" of my daughter and
directing from my wife is the favorite
image of the bunch. Money well
spent. Enthusiasm restored … at least
briefly.
Justin Haag,
May 25, 2018
long exposure created in our front
Sparkling
Enthusiasm
