First Street NW in front of the Capitol is not the best place in DC to watch Fourth of July fireworks, as Amy and I learned firsthand two nights ago. The crowd is thick and nasty, the road is hard, the variety show on the Capitol lawn never finishes on time, the fireworks are far and low over the horizon, inconsiderate people always stand up in front of those who are sitting to get a better view, and even if you remain sitting, people behind you will complain that you are in front of them no matter what you do. I normally enjoy being around tourists, but next time we stay in DC to watch the fireworks we will be avoiding this infested stupidity-magnet of a location, and go to the much better viewing spots around Constitution Gardens, as we did two years ago. (Also see the excellent vantage point I had last year from the Department of Labor roof deck.)
The good news is that full zoom and a six second exposure with the camera sitting on a tripod served me well once more, and all the people standing and milling around between the lens and the fireworks made for some interesting overlap effects, too:
