Here's a fun project for a hot summer night: buy a few boxes of sparklers and enlist the help of a creative friend to do some light tracings after dark. The technique is really simple and requires only a few extra accessories, namely a tripod and some form of cable release (either a manual cable release or an electronic remote release) that lets you lock the shutter open.
With the camera mounted on the tripod and the shutter locked open (you'll have to set the camera to "manual" exposure mode), just have your friend light a sparkler (it helps to have a second friend handy for that part) and then draw shapes in the night. In this case I had my friend Sarah draw a peace sign--and amazingly she got a perfect one on only the second or third try.
There is a complete step-by-step tutorial on how to take sparkler photos on my site.
By the way, most camera manufacturers make wireless remotes for their cameras, but if you happen to own a NIKON D-70, D-50, N65, N75, Coolpix 8400, 8800, Pronea S, Nuvis S or Lite Touch Zoom cameras try contacting George at Ingram Technologies. Ingram makes remotes that have ranges that are up to four times longer than Nikon's (60' as opposed to 15').
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