rtphokie asked me to say a little about my shot. It's actually pretty simple... it's the usual fireworks formula of a tripod, bulb mode, and remote shutter release. I did do some extra work during this performance of Illuminations, including switching to a telephoto zoom to get close to the Earth globe during that portion then going back to the wide zoom, but this shot is more a matter of just how impressive the end of Illuminations is than anything I did.
This shot was taken right near the end of the show (at 9:17pm), when there are a ton of fireworks going off simultaneously. My shot was only 3.2 seconds - versus 30 seconds for the winning Wishes photo. About 1/10th of the amount of time and a comparable (or more) amount of firework trails. Did I mention that I love Illuminations?
For what it's worth, the lens used was the popular Tamron 28-75mm F2.8 at 28mm and F9.5. I would have like to have gone even wider but this was my widest non-fisheye lens that I had with me.