Fire Breather, 4th of July
July 9, 2011
I went out on July 4th fully expecting to try and master the world of fireworks photography even though my previous attempts have not been very masterful. We setup the canopy right on the line and waited all day for the show. Prior to the show a fire performance group called Pyrophoric came out and did a really cool fire show prior to the fireworks. They had all kinds of dancing with fire on sticks, whips, and all kinds of other devices. Naturally I shifted to photographing pyrophoric and noticed a couple of things. To maximize the show the group performed at dusk which really makes it especially hard to photograph. As the show commenced I found myself increasing my ISO and pulling back wider to try and get some image clarity. Moving on I noticed that the fire was doing the work for me and instead of imaging the people I started to image the fire on the performers as they were lit. My favorite photograph is the fire breather below. Everything in the image works, the fire has detail, his shirt fits the 4thof July, and it is just cool. By the way right after they were finished it started pouring and needless to say mastering fireworks photography will have to wait.
Fire Breather, 4th of July
