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Happy New Year, dekeOmaniacs. To get 2009 off on the right foot, (and seriously, put that last insane bit of 2008 behind us), we've decided to share something special with you, our beloved community. Frankly, we can't thank you enough for all the love, humor, and patience you showed us last year. (Especially the patience during the month of December where we both pulled off the miracle submission of the book and reintroduced ourselves to our families who were wondering who those smelly if vaguely familiar people who were always chained to the computer screen were.) Read more » 

Well, Deke is safely ensconsed in a broadband-challenged area of "off-the-hand" Michigan, so I can write whatever I like today without him editorally looking over my shoulder. (I think he enjoys turning the tables on me.) So I thought about running my seasonably inappropriate and infamous "How to Draw a Snowflake using InDesign" tutorial, but, instead, I'll celebrate my personal independence the way all red, white, and blue-blooded American's do this time of year here in the states, by rounding up the best advice on how to photograph fireworks.

• Over at the The Digital Story, Derrick's got a great set of basic advice for shooting your pyrotechnic celebrations. His first item? Turn off the flash: "Yes, you're going to be shooting in a dark environment, and if your camera is set to auto flash, it's going to fire. This is the last thing you want, so turn it off." This presumes you know how to turn off the flash. In fact, that's probably an even better tip: know how to control the flash on your camera before you're in the dark trying to figure it out on-the-fly. (For more sage advice on shooting in special circumstances, from airplanes to underwater to infrared, check out Derrick's book, The Digital Photography Companion.)

• Lifehacker has a terrifically illustrated list of things to remember about shooting fireworks. Here's a favorite:

Have a small light handy for checking and altering settings on the camera and tripod without having to fumble in the dark. A small red LED key chain flashlight is perfect for this task. Red light is less disruptive to your night vision than white light.  

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