Any other professional pyros out there?
 

It's that time of year again, and I'm gearing up for shooting the 4th of July fireworks show at Shawnee Lake in Topeka. Sounds like we've got a few people who sell class C pyro around, but does anybody else out there shoot the big stuff?

If so, where will you be? What's your show like? Any cool pictures from past years?

For what it's worth, this kinda began over in Nzoner's thread here. I just didn't want to hijack his thread any further than I already had.

I'm kinda creeped out by you complementing my rack, but thanks!

That's a cool idea, and I might try it if we still had that show. Unfortunately, those pics are from 2001. After 9/11, Parks and Rec decided that we were gonna blow up the dam with our pyro somehow. Now, we're limited to pretty much only aerial shells. However, I've found that timing a barrage of 8, 2x6, 2x4, and a few salutes to burst simultaneously at countdown time "0" wakes em up just fine!

It's really a shame. We used to create some really cool effects by spreading cakes out over a 1000' spread on the dam at Lake Perry (shown below). We try to do a little of that at Shawnee, but it's just not the same.

Brocades....

Titanium Salutes

Anyone? :)

Nice wall. Cakes are handy especially for the finale. Here is the kerosene effect as seen from across the lake about 400 yards away...

That is pretty cool. I've never used a "big ball of fire" effect in a show, but it would certainly be a change from the typical "colored sparks" look.

Where was that done?

From a couple years ago..

Yep, that's it exactly: something a little different. The cremora bombs are cool too. A wall of sound and fire.

This was done at a lake in an Iowa state park. I love to set up and shoot shows but haven't been able to do so for a couple of years (they frown on that in Arizona). Have you gone to any demos? Free food and drink while the rep shoots the latest and greatest product. Good stuff.

Traditional but good...

ooohhh..

aaahhhh...

smells like...victory

sorry, I have a hard time even lighting a black cat. I'm too yeller, I suppose.

I like the layering that you've got going on in a lot of those, with cakes going strong down low, but simliar effects up higher. We've tried some of that, but it never seems to be as cohesive as I'd like. Once, we did a brocade crown cake run (like the pic above) and then lit off 2x10" brocade crown aerial shells right at the end of the show. I don't have a picture of it, but those 10's hung in the air for around 20 seconds. That's probably my favorite look we've gotten.

I've personally never gone to the demos, but I've always wanted to. I work for a company who pretty much dictates what effects we get anyway. It sucks, but they take care of a lot of the paperwork that I have no desire to deal with, so it's a trade off. This is probably my last year, as I'm moving out of the area I've always shot shows in. Otherwise, I might try and find a demo to attend. Oh well.