What are the cirlces in my fireworks pictures?

[mykadog]

While taking pictures of fireworks from atop a parking garage, circles appear in the images that I assume are some kind of reflection from the lens. There is an overhead light to the left. The camera was a Nikon D300 and the lens AF Nikor 28-80 3.3-5.6G. Should the circles have appeared? Are they showing flaws in the lens (small spots in the big circle)? Thanks for any information you can give.

[SusanH1970]

Looks like lens flare to me.

[BigFuzzy]

Like Susan, I believe these are flare. It's probably coming from the bright orange source of light in the lower left.

I think the small spots are dust either on the lens or on the sensor.. but that I'm less sure of.

Remember, that anytime a bright light is pointed in the direction of your lens, there's a chance of flare. Is that bright yellow light the overhead light you were talking about? Looks like some futuristic war you got going on there!

[Nicole]

I agree, probably lens flare and dust. Dust seems to show up particularly well in things like the little bokeh circles you can get.

Meanwhile, I totally love that it looks like fireworks over some alien planet.

[mykadog]

Thanks for all your responses. Looks like I just need to do some dusting and stay away from street lights unless I want to create some StarTrek images.
Thanks again.

[lputman]

Did you have a filter on your lens?

[mykadog]

No filters...except for the dust.
I'm going to try to attach another view that actually has the street light in the picture.