Second image in my 4th of July 2025 Fireworks series...

Yesterday's image was a fiery red, but today's capture is dominated by a blue evening sky with a golden explosion in the center.

We were sitting on the edge of the beach and the people you see here were ahead of us and sitting on an old jetty as they watched the show.

Fourth and last image in this 4th of July Fireworks Series...

Unbelievably, this image was captured with my iPhone 14 Pro Max. It was handheld shooting as I sat on the edge of the Lake Michigan beach in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.

What you see above is evidence as to just how far camera phones have come in the last few years. I made a conscious decision not to lug my big, heavy gear and tripod, wanting to find out what I could do with the iPhone. I was pleasantly surprised. Granted, I did process the image in On1, the new editor that I recently purchased.

The silhouetted people you see here are sitting of me on an old jetty that extends into the Lake. The 'fire' in the foreground is the water and waves reflecting the intense red light of the fireworks in the night sky above.

Thanks for joining me on this Fireworks Series...

4th of July, 2025...

We had fun sitting on the beach last evening watching 30 minutes of non-stop fireworks lighting up the sky. I took a bunch of images with my iPhone 14, most of them 3-second exposures.

It sure was easier than lugging my heavy gear and tripod down there. It was simply point, shoot, and let the phone camera decide how long to make the exposure, plus compensate for my handheld shaking.

You can see a few fellow fireworks watchers here, silhouetted against the red glow of the explosions.

I was pleased with how many images turned out nicely. I will post a few more in the coming days.

Enjoy!

Happy 249th Birthday, America!!!

I hope everyone has a safe and festive Independence Day!

I for one feel blessed to live here and call America my home.

Perfect? By no means. No country is. But I am grateful for the many blessings it gives us. May we live free, live gratefully, and live kindly!

The Generalissimo Trump Balloon made another appearance, this time at the 4th of July rally. The group who created it was having a little difficulty inflating it. That's why I chose this quote as my caption.

This was the first photo I took for the day. I had just come from Hill Street (in the distance), walking my way through Grand Park to get to City Hall. Instead of shooting any video, I opted for a few stills of this thing being inflated and set up. There will be more photos to come.

I don't know the network this guy was working for, if it was a streaming service, or online, or whatever. He was working alone on the 4th of July. And he was interviewing this woman, who seemed to be a one-woman-band herself, considering her sign. This was only several minutes after 10:00 AM, so the crowd had not yet gathered on the City Hall steps. But they would soon.

The woman supporting the Corporation For Public Broadcasting turned around for this part of the photo-op. A lot of hard work and care had been put into making this outfit.

The women who posed for the various media photographers on the steps of City Hall gathered on Spring Street, in front of City Hall for yet another photo-opp.

The shirtless guy in the background was doing various pantomime moves that imitated the prisoners in El Salvador, based on the photos that went public about them. Unfortunately, by the time I was able to train my camera on him he was done, putting his shirt back on.

The way they were trying to keep the Krasnov balloon inflated gave the impression that it was trying to plead with the headless figures in the foreground. Perhaps balloons like this work better using hot air instead of helium.

One can take a look at these people and see that they have a long life of hard work, and not necessarily in the fields, but in offices and places where hard, dirty work is performed. However, if the MAGA crowd feel these same people are taking away jobs from them, they are welcome to take a crack at this work, and for the same low wages. (But we all know that isn't what this is about.)

This is another one of my 4th of July photos. It wasn't even 11:00 AM, which is why so few people were up on the steps of City Hall. And everyone who had something to say via their signs were able to get them seen clearly, except perhaps the child in the back, whose mother accidentally covered the words "ICE" and "kidnapping" with her small flag. But it too was a good sign.

This photo was taken shortly before 10:00 AM. As I said, there were way fewer people here than at the "No Kings!" rally last month. But this is a good example of someone who wanted to be here and wanted so say SOMETHING. So she made a sign. I love it and I told her that when I asked her to let me take a photo of it. The sign, in its simplicity, says it all.

I did get down to L.A. City Hall for the 4th, but there weren't as many people as there had been on June 14 -- not even close to what we had then.

Nevertheless, Refuse Fascism set up shop with their truck in front of City Hall, and then put this display on the steps. (No cops to be seen this time.)

This collage was originally unveiled on July 3, on Olivera Street. The flyer given to me (by a lady from Refuse Fascism) says (in part), "Visual installation showing for the first time the Names and Faces of the human beings who have been kidnapped and detained, deported or been sent to offshore concentration camps."

The flyer goes on to say that "over 56,397 individuals are now in ICE detention centers. Over 139,000 people as of April 2025 have been deported, many without due process. Over 1,000 are currently crammed into detention centers outside Los Angeles, where people, including children, are being denied food, water and medical care."

The photos seen here are merely the tip of the iceberg, and it will only get worse once the "Big Beautiful Bill" kicks in.

This photo was taken when it was still fairly early, a little after 8:00 AM. For whatever reasons, the Krasnov balloon must have had some small leaks that let the helium leak out. I noticed they had been struggling with it for a while. They did eventually get it fully inflated, but it didn't draw much attention after a while. The women in the colorful outfits were stealing the attention away for the photographers.

But this does look funny when seeing it out of context.

The people you see here were the ones who brought this "Krasnov Trump" balloon. But for some reason they had a hard time keeping the helium in it. There must have been a small leak they couldn't find. It is why at times it looked as if it were ready to go on display, while at other times it looked like a clumsy old man who couldn't keep his footing and would stumble to the ground.

Despite the serious efforts to keep the balloon inflated, it did suggest a funny image, especially if one found the right angles to shoot this from. And I think the woman facing the camera also saw the humor in the situation.

This photo was taken on the 4th of July. I missed the original photo op with the other journalists shooting stills of the women in their outfits, but I was able to get a few women on the City Hall steps, including this one. She also has a good sign on the back of her blouse and skirt. Both sides pertain to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Now the news is official that the CPB will shut its doors, effective immediately. "Sesame Street" is only one of the many programs on the chopping block, but "Sesame Street" has been a staple of PBS (and the Children's Television Workshop) for over fifty years. But the Big Beautiful Bill has managed to take out Big Bird.

She was one of many women dressed in these stylish ensembles, all making political statements and all highly symbolic as well. Because there were no deputies or cops on the City Hall steps, these women got up where the cops had been last month to pose for photographers, including those from various news services, such as the L.A Times.

The symbolism of this outfit is pretty clear.

I think this guy might have been a cop, judging from his outfit. But why would he have a flag draped over his shoulders?

This was taken not long before I headed out for home. This time things quieted down, as there were far fewer people at the 4th of July rally than there were on June 14. I am looking north, towards Chinatown.

I don't know how many Taco King restaurants there are in California. We have one in Glendale, but that's all I know of. Anyway, it's now going to be hard to eat at this place and not think of this protest sign.

I was more concerned about getting people and signs for the 4th of July rally, also held downtown at L.A.'s City Hall. The person who created this sign had the right idea. We're going to continue to see more and more upside down American flags as the year drags on.

This turned out to be a much better shot than I had expected -- that is, I knew it would look good, but I wasn't sure how good it would look until I saw it after I downloaded the image on to my computer and ran it though Lightroom (and Photoshop Express). This was also probably the most crowded it got on City Hall steps before the march began.

Anyway, the artwork on this sign is beautiful.

This, of course was taken on the 4th July. The sign pretty much runs the gamut of how most people see him, or at least feel about him.

This was taken at the 4th of July gathering, some time before 11:30 AM. This was one of the better signs I had seen that day.

These women put on a "fashion show" on the City Hall steps on the 4th of July. I managed to get all but one, which was a woman wearing a skirt made from a Mexican flag. And, naturally, it was her photo that ended up in the L.A. Times.

This was taken after they were done with the photo op. They posed for more photos, here and on the street, but they seemed to be wondering what their next move would be.

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This group comprised the live entertainment on the 4th of July. They parked their truck in front of City Hall, and then they opened up both sides, but they played facing one way, towards the crowd in Grand Park.

This was another one of the group of women wearing stylish dresses and skirts, all of which showed their disdain towards Trump. I liked the Wonder Bread-like top, her clown wig, her holding balloons, and the bold colored skirt that completed the ensemble. She may have been going to join the other protesters headed east several blocks to the ICE facilities, where the Sheriff Deputies were located (instead of here at City Hall), and the Marines, also placed down there.

Here is a nice combination of a professionally made sign along side with a home made sign. The message isn't original, but the intent behind it is worth noting.

There will no doubt be more gatherings at City Hall and Roybal Center (where the detention center is, along with the Marines and National Guard), but it's hard to determine if they will be anything like the massive gathering on June 14.

And don't worry. I still have plenty of photos from that day I plan on putting up here on Flickr very soon.

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There must be something lost in the translation. "Carbones" translates into "coals," so the word "coals" must have some other derogatory meaning. (I'm basing this on Google Translate, not my high school Spanish, which I've practically forgotten.) I know what the other sign means. As for the guy at the lower right, his signs speak for themselves.

Compared to June 14, this rally had a much smaller turnout. It's understandable, as it was the 4th of July, and despite how everyone felt about the state of the country people did want to celebrate it in a reasonable manner.

This photo was taken after 11:30, and things began to quiet down. As I've pointed out before, not as many people showed up for this rally on the 4th of July as they did on June 14, but enough were here to show their solidarity.

As for the guy dressed as Batman, I'm still not sure why he was there. It wasn't an occasion for cosplay, unless he was showing how Batman was also "anti-establishment." His cape was quite intriguing, too.

This lady wanted to show me the cat she stitched on to her sweater and how she worked it so she could pull a string and have the "middle fingers" of the cat's paws go upward. This was about a half an hour after I had arrived and there weren't that many people then.

It's funny in that the outer portion of the umbrella was not this nice shade of blue; it was only from seeing it backlit from the inside that the blue kicked out. I liked the way it complimented the hat she wore. Her sign was okay, but not as strong as many of the signs I saw on the 4th -- or on June 14, for that matter.

But that umbrella looked cool.

This was from the 4th of July, so there weren't as many people at City Hall as there were on the 14th of June. But someone brought a Baby Trump Balloon that didn't leak. I don't know how much these things cost, but I know they aren't cheap. I doubt anyone would take the larger Baby Trump Balloon, or the bigger Comrade Krasnov Trump Balloon, fill it with hydrogen, and then touch a match to either one and watch it do its impersonation of the Hindenburg.

Near the end of the 4th of July rally, a group of people put up this sign. I still haven't found the time to check out their website, but I'm sure they are a legitimate group. However, lots of luck convincing enough people of the truth. She may have won, but she also conceded, so there isn't much else that can be done.

It wasn't that long ago (2000) that something similar happened, and it was Florida that determined the outcome. The real winner was magnanimous enough to concede and not challenge it later on. It's funny how that works, doesn't it? Two people held their heads up and accepted defeat even though they were extremely close to victory.

I had four photos of this sign; this particular one worked best for me. I think you can see why.

My friend is holding an iPhone, or a stabilizer for his iPhone. He has a small stick mic to get a proper directional recording of the lady holding the sign. What you see is a motorcycle waiting to make a left turn. I didn't notice it when I took the photo, and since I only took one photo I have to live with the motorcycle being in the way, suggesting some odd lens extension on the iPhone, which in reality there isn't one.

This was taken as most people were leaving the rally. I'm sure many just wanted to go home and finish celebrating what was left of the 4th of July. But at least they (and I) went downtown and made our presence known.

This was the side facing City Hall. I think it was done this way so anyone who drove by could see the sign -- that is, before this part of Spring Street would be temporarily closed for the rally and later the march.

I took this photo a little after 10:00 in the morning. People were still arriving. This gave me a lot of freedom to move around and find good spots in which to take photos later on.

I'm not sure why this guy needed to cover his cowl, since no one could possibly recognize him anyway.

The woman behind him was the one whose photo was published in the L.A. Times. I missed getting her by the time I noticed the photo-op happening on the City Hall steps. Naturally, the one I miss is the one that makes the paper, but it is understandable that this outfit was the right choice.

This was taken some twenty minutes or so before they all gathered for another photo-op out on Spring Street, in front of City Hall. Those photos will come later.

This was left by the Refuse Fascism group for anyone who didn't have time to make their own protest sign to grab one of these. They were also available in English, but I think the Spanish signs were more effective, despite the risk a person may have had in carrying one.

Just as I was taking a photo of the guy with the "Jesus Was Woke" sign, the guy wearing the red running pants showed up to adjust the "She Won" sign. After I took the photo, the guy with the "Jesus Was Woke" sign moved away, thus spoiling my chances for a second take.

The guy in the running pants could have at the least yanked them up a bit.

I don't think they are a couple, just posing for the photographers (like me). The rally didn't get that big, even when most everyone went on a march to protest down at Roybal Center.

I couldn't crop out the skirt made up like the Mexican flag, so I decided to leave it in. If I had waited for her to move I would have lost the shot altogether. She was actually posing with these two, but I would have had to move to my left to get a better perspective, and that area was already taken by the other photographers.

This was taken on the 4th of July. I saw the flags together and decided to not only shoot video vertically, I would do it in slow motion. I didn't realize the person carrying the flags was going to move back towards City Hall, so I just kept following him, getting lens flare and the sun in the shot.

This video was shot with my Samsung A35 smartphone.

The City of Santa Clara’s annual 4th of July celebration held at Mission College brought together families, friends, and visitors for a vibrant evening of live music, food trucks, and a stunning fireworks display. These photos capture the highlights of the night, from patriotic performances to the colorful bursts lighting up the California sky.

📍 Location: Mission College, Santa Clara, California

📅 Date: July 4, 2025