A fireworks festival lighting up the night in the port city of Yokohama.
The fireworks themselves were as spectacular as you would expect from Yokohama. However, the crowds around Minato Mirai were far bigger than I had expected.
I usually try to photograph fireworks together with the surrounding cityscape. For that reason, I often choose a shooting location some distance away from the launch site and use a telephoto lens.
This time, however, I decided to try something different and photograph the fireworks from much closer to the launch area.
When photographing fireworks, camera settings are not the only important consideration.
Where should you place your camera? How high should it be? And which direction should it face?
These are some of the most basic and important decisions to make before even thinking about camera settings.
If the camera is pointed slightly in the wrong direction, the fireworks may not fit inside the frame once the show begins. Another possibility is that people sitting in front of you may suddenly stand up when the fireworks start and completely block your view.
There is always an element of luck involved, but you can prepare for many of these problems in advance.
For example, I always try to think, “What happens if the person in front of me stands up?” Considering these possible problems beforehand helps determine the best camera position and height.
This time, however, something happened that I had not expected.
Almost everyone who had been sitting in front of me stood up when the fireworks began.
That was definitely not part of my plan.
The actual shooting technique was basically the same method I have used at other fireworks festivals.
The Biggest Challenge Wasn’t Photography
The biggest challenge this time was not actually taking the photographs.
There were so many people in the area that mobile data became almost unusable.
For about three hours, from the time I arrived until the fireworks ended, I could barely access many of the apps on my phone.
When your smartphone suddenly loses its connection, you realize how much you normally depend on it.
“What time do the fireworks start?”
“Which train should I take home?”
“Which direction is the station?”
Normally, I could check all of these things immediately on my phone. Even Apple Music was unavailable, so I couldn’t listen to music while waiting for the show to begin.
But the most difficult part came after the fireworks ended.
Thousands of people began moving at the same time. The crowd was so dense that everyone could only move forward little by little, and simply reaching the station became a challenge.
What made the situation feel dangerous was not just the number of people.
At some points, the crowd was so dense that I could no longer tell which direction I was walking.
If my phone had been working normally, I could have checked my location, found the direction of the station, or used Google Maps to guide me. Without a reliable mobile connection, none of those options were available.
I would rather not experience that feeling of being trapped inside such a huge crowd again.
What I Would Do Next Time
After this experience, I think my usual style suits me better: finding a location farther away from the launch site and photographing the fireworks with a telephoto lens.
It allows me to combine the fireworks with the Yokohama cityscape, while also avoiding some of the extreme congestion around the main viewing areas.
I have photographed other major fireworks festivals in Tokyo, including the Sumida River Fireworks Festival and the Itabashi Fireworks Festival, but the crowd I experienced in Yokohama felt different in its intensity.
If you are planning to travel to Japan next year specifically to see the fireworks in Yokohama’s Minato Mirai area, be prepared for extremely large crowds.
Most importantly, prepare for the possibility that mobile data may become difficult or impossible to use around the venue. Save maps, train information, and your route back to the station on your phone before you arrive.
That small amount of preparation can make a very big difference.
