File:Aerial firework bursting charge.jpg

English: The picture shows a mortar style aerial firework bursting charge as it expels stars at high speed. One method of elevating fireworks is with an elevating charge which fires a shell out of a tube. A shell can contain a bursting charge whose fuse is lit when it is expelled from the tube. When the bursting charge explodes, it expels smaller objects out of the shell called "stars". The stars then travel in a predetermined direction away from the shell, and burn or explode immediately or after a delay. Material in both the shell and the stars, such as clay, can affect the direction the star as it leaves the shell and distance before the star explodes or burns after it is expelled. My favorite complex firework is the smiley face firework which uses approximately 20 yellow stars that explode at a specific distance from the shell to make a circle, two stars to make eyes, and approximately 8 stars to make a smile. To make the smiley face recognizable, the stars have to be expelled on the same plane. While watching a fireworks show, I noticed the stars in a group of fireworks began energetically burning immediately after being expelled from the shell, and some of the stars detonated about 40 feet from the shell in a partial circle. I concluded the group of fireworks were malfunctioning, so I decided to take a picture of the moment the bursting charges were detonating. The intense bright light of the bursting charges in the darkness made focusing and metering for the shot impossible. I therefore moved in close to the launch area. I located a distant street light that was about the same distance horizontally as the height vertically where the bursting charges were detonating. I set up on the street light. Then I moved about 15 feet (4.6 m) away from the launch area since the mortars seemed to be malfunctioning. After the elevating charge fired on the next shot, I quickly moved back to the launching area while the shell was elevating, and timed swinging the camera vertically based on the previous shot. The plan worked and the image captured the moment the bursting charge detonated. The image shows the stars are being expelled by the bursting charge, and material is immediately burning off the stars without a delay.