4th of July Pictures + Best Fireworks Camera

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Is anyone else seriously dragging today?! The long weekend threw me off so much, but it was so much fun! The weather was perfect - sunny and hot and perfect for laying in the sun! I wasn't originally planning on putting another post up about the 4th of July but here I am anyway - it's my favorite holiday and I just so happened to take some seriously amazing fireworks pics, if I do say so myself! ;) I'll admit that being a blogger and always wanting to get that perfect shot is the reason I tried so hard to get the perfect shot(s), and I think I got it down when it comes to action shots! I was so excited looking through the pictures post-fireworks because I wasn't expecting them to come out so good. One of the most important factors in blogging is your camera (in my opinion) and while I have a more fancy Canon DSLR, I find myself gravitating way more toward this camera because it's smaller, easier to use and honestly *almost* just as good. The camera I'm talking about is the Nikon CoolPix p510; it's SO good and how I took all of these pictures:

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I'm so proud of how these came out! It was really hard to narrow down a couple for a post out of the 256 that I took, but these are my favorites. I had been reading about the Nikon CoolPix's firework setting and I wasn't sure how good it would actually work but I'm so happy with it. Next to fireworks, sparklers are also so much fun on the 4th of July and I know I'm not the only one who sees all of those awesome sparkler pictures and wants to take similar ones; I tried this with my Canon Rebel (DSLR) and they didn't come out nearly as good as these did:

^My younger sister, Daniela, AKA my right hand when it comes to photography! ;)

I'm not sure what shape I was trying to make in this one, but I love how it came out more than whatever I was trying for! Isn't this so cool?! And there's fireworks in the background, love this shot!

After a few practice tries, I found the perfect timing for taking these firework/sparkler pictures. Focusing the camera before you're ready to take the picture and taking it right as the firework starts - or right as you begin creating a shape with a sparkler - gets you the perfect picture! It varies but playing around a bit with when to take the picture eventually will get you the perfect shot. The p510 is the older model, and the newer version is this B500. Both are great (and super similar) cameras!
DSLR's are great and there's SO much you can do with them - and they really are very fun to learn about - but if you need something simpler, don't want to spend as much, or something smaller/easier to carry around, this camera is THE one for you! It's great also because you can take it into concerts since it isn't a DSLR and take amazing pictures! It's firework setting among SO many others is great; depending on what type of blog post it is, I'll switch between this camera and the Canon Rebel XSi, but the Nikon CoolPix is my go-to.
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I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and if you're in America, a fabulous 4th of July! What's your favorite camera?
XOXO -A