Pick out something like a street light, car head light anything that your camera can focus at about 50 to a 100 feet... Once focused turn to manual. tripod and a shutter release. so not to touch the camera. will help but not a must. How long to leave the shutter open is up to you. 1 second is a long time, I think you would want to back up and get some people, trees, boats and water anything to go with the big bang.. Have fun.
I took my fireworks photo with a tripod. I'm not sure how close you were, but I was far enough away to set my distance at infinity. I set my camera at ISO 100, f.9.0, exposure was at 50 seconds. I also set my camera on Bulb mode rather than manual. That way, I could leave the shutter open as long as I wanted and be able to capture multiple fireworks going off. I used a 6" x 6" black poster board to put over the lens when there wasn't any fireworks going off and then would remeove it when one went off. That way I avoided over exposing the shot. I also used a remote shutter release. You can check out my photo on my page. It was posted on Canada Day, July 1. Hope this helps.
