How to Photograph Fireworks

I love the 4th of July because it reminds me of how great our country is, and the liberties that we all enjoy as Americans.
Fireworks are a wonderful tradition and it is exciting to capture the beauty and colors of these with a camera. Here are some of my fireworks photos from last year:

My setup is this:

• Mount my camera to a tripod
• Set the camera to manual mode, ISO 100, f/5.6, 4 to 8 seconds
• Set the zoom on my lens to fill the frame with fireworks
• Use a cable release to click the shutter instead of pressing it with my finger

The color balance is not so critical with fireworks, so you can use Auto White Balance on your camera.
The histogram will look mostly blank, don't panic though, if you can see color in your preview LCD then you are probably OK. If you see flashing highlights in your histogram then you've over-exposed a bit so change your f-stop to a higher number instead.
You may also want to take your lens off the Auto Focus setting and just manually adjust it instead.
Have a patriotic and fun 4th of July in 2010!