Playing With Fire

I make my way down to the stream behind my house along with my dad. We wanted to set up before dark so we made sure to leave around 4:30pm. By the time we got there, my dog Trancer had already jumped into the freezing late November water. We had everything positioned, fine-tuned and ready to go. My camera was set at ISO 200/ 15 seconds/ F18 with my 10-18mm lens. While we were waiting for the scene to darken I noticed the brilliant full moon which would help to light up the forest background. By this time my dog had stopped running around in the water and had started chewing sticks in half. His attention eventually turned toward why we were waiting in the middle of the forest on a freezing fall night when he could be at home basking in front of the fire or sleeping in his bed. Finally it got dark enough so I pushed the steel wool into the whisk, signaled my dad to start taking pictures, lit the wool on fire and began to swing it over my head. Sparks were flying in every direction. I could hardly wait to see how the pictures would turn out.

As soon as I looked on the back of my camera I was ecstatic. The thing about trying a new photography technique is that you never know how it will turn out until you get out in to the wild and try it yourself. Even if that means staying out at night navigating through freezing rocky ice water in sneakers in the dark. If you look up at the picture on the left, you may have noticed that it looks like one of the trees on the right of the frame is about to combust into flames. I assure you I did not set the forest on fire that night. Actually my dad and I stayed for a half an hour afterwards shaking the tree looking for stray sparks. When shooting with steel wool, safety is a priority. You should set your picture on pavement, snow, near water or wet grass after a rainfall. I also recommend keeping your camera at a safe distance because I have seen people who have broken their lens from sparks pelting their camera. Luckily my GoPro (in the left picture) was protected in its housing. Overall it was a fun experience and the next time I would like to venture further up the waterfall and have some snow in the composition.