Fire swallowing (NSFW)

dyfrgi · March 23, 2011

There was a bit of fire swallowing, breathing, poi, etc. at a party I was at recently. Pulled out my camera and took a few (hundred) exposures - the light was really challenging, since it was thoroughly dominated by the fire. There was a glass window on one side with some fluorescent lights shining out, providing a bit extra, and the moon was full. The light would routinely change 5 stops from one activity to the next, though. I wound up mostly shooting on manual since otherwise it'd expose poorly for both the fire *and* the people.

I got a few good shots of one person doing fire swallowing. For much of it, she was topless, hence the choice of forums. Here's a couple of my favorites.

More here, including some fully clothed firebreathing: http://dyfrgi.smugmug.com/Events/Fire-at-Kiernans-Spring-2011/

One note, if you should find yourself shooting fire play: take off any filters you have on. Until I took off the UV filter I had on the lens I was getting horrendous green ghosting. Looked kind of neat in a few shots, but it wasn't really what I was going for.