I made the mistake of taking the 28-138 lens instead of the 18-55 lens, because of this the fireworks tended to take up more than the frame.  Here's what I walked away with. 

 

The Purple People Bridge

 

The crowd gathering across the river in Newport, KY.

large

 

A large ad for some drink I will prolly never try.

 

Mt. Adams from Riverfest

 

Covington, KY from Riverfest

 

Some of the Riverfest crowd.

 

Newport on the Levee

 

We were given headphones for the occasion. (VIP seats rock :-))

 

Not everyone had a good day.

 

A fireboat showing off for the crowd.

 

The crowd about 10 minutes before the fireworks show. (Some people sit very still...)

 

The barge is in position. (About 5 minutes before the fireworks show.)

 

Newport and Crowd

 

Then the fireworks began.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The walk home, with 500,000 other people.

 

A random skyscraper shot on the walk to the bus.

 

The line for the bus.

I see that they used the Riverfront Transit Center for the buses this year.  Last year they wouldn't go any further south than Gov't Square...I thought that was a big mistake.  Gov't Square was immediately overwhelmed by the amount of people.

 

I also kind of like that most of the firework pictures extend beyond the frame...it gives it an added touch.

^Did you take a normal bus route or a park and ride bus route? 

 

I took the park and ride bus last year (from Western Hills Plaza) and the bus dropped us off and picked us up from the Riverfront Transit Center.  Same with the year before that.  This year, I took the GE bus as the Western Hills Plaza park and ride was shut down (no clue why) and the bus driver dropped us off right at the entrance to Riverfest.  Obviously, the bus picked us up at the Riverfront Transit Center this year too.

I guess that was the difference...I took the 17 down from Clifton.

Nice!

Great Shots!!

 

New Plan banned all Metro buses from the Western Hills Plaza indefinitely last December due to numerous reasons.    Main reason was they were tearing the parking lot up and creating giant potholes and the county refused to compensate the new owners for the damages.

I also took the 17 down from Clifton and boy was it packed! It was awesome seeing so many people taking the bus. We got off before Gov Square, but afterwards, it was a total mess. People(no offense, but they were Indian) were going through the back door without paying, which caused more chaos as Metro had to kick people off the bus. So we just waited 45 minutes at Fountain Square and then took the bus back up.

Great shots, and the best fireworks pictures ever!

 

I also took the 17 down from Clifton and boy was it packed! It was awesome seeing so many people taking the bus. We got off before Gov Square, but afterwards, it was a total mess. People(no offense, but they were Indian) were going through the back door without paying, which caused more chaos as Metro had to kick people off the bus. So we just waited 45 minutes at Fountain Square and then took the bus back up.

 

They need to get corporate sponsors to underwrite the bus service for the event, and just run them free that evening. It would speed the loading of buses and encourage people to ride instead of trying to drive.

Thanks for the compliments guys. 

 

 

oakiehigh - Sad to hear that they will not be running the buses from Western Hills Plaza any more, it made the transportation to and from the fireworks extremely convenient. 

 

rob_1412 - The park and ride buses charge $5 for a round trip, which gets you a slip (not sure if it is the standard transfer slip) for the return trip.  Because everyone has a slip, the whole bus can load in under a minute, but getting the bus out of the transit center can take a while.  I know it looked like a total mess of people, but I only waited about 10 minutes for a bus, so the system worked pretty well.  A few more park and ride locations would have been nice though. 

Holy crap!  What great pictures!  I'm with Rob - best fireworks pictures ever!  Other threads have had fireworks over skylines, but for pure fireworks, I've not seen better!  I'm glad about your choice of lens!

 

^^^^ +1

Pretty!