Fire Dancers 2

[CLKunst]

Well I'm getting ready to go off for Round 2 with the fire dancing crew tonight. Wish me luck! Peeled through the rest of my editing too. Some interesting tid bits here. Please feel free to bash away at these as I am having another go at it tonight.

[Coastal Flyer]

Images are kind of dark to convey the essence of what is happening. I think we have all seen fire dancers before so understand the danger and the elegance, but a higher ISO might capture more for you.

I never understood how the fire goes in the mouth... yikes!

[CLKunst]

Thanks for commenting CF!

These were done in a field at around midnight and there really wasn't much else to see. Shot at 3200 ISO, I was trying to freeze the dancers in action. Will be returning with a few flash strobes tonight to try some multiple exposures and better isolation from the background.

Thanks for your opinion.

[julsoph]

Again, quite cool shots. I like 2 & 4 the best, and have nitpicks about both of them...but they're minor. On #2, I think it would be really cool to have her whole hands in the shot, with whatever you call what she's holding. It looks like the shape of the things are the same as what she's wearing on her head, and it would echo it nicely.
With #4, I LOVE this one, but the figure/shape that is right by her head...it would be better to clone that out somehow, imo...

Really love these shots though!
Emily

[CLKunst]

Thanks Emily!

I think you're right and will look into fixing them up when I get back from my crazy weekend! Tonight there is supposed to be a belly dancer there with huge red wings too!

I'm off to see the sparklers!

[swmdrayfan]

Cindy,
I really don't have anything to add, but I wanted to let you know I saw them. I really don't know how I feel about them, but I know they're beyond my meager skills at this point.
John

[Coastal Flyer]

Lets see the belly dancer with the sparklers. That could be excellent.

[gahspidy]

CLkunst, I like 3&4 the best. I like the moody glow of the fire on the subjects and the dark of the night lends to the feel as well. I think your iso 3200 is working fine here, but I think all you need is to capture some more effective "moments" I'm not much into sports and action photography but i know that the trick is to fire off lots of frames at key moments and the idea is that one of those frames will be gold. I would suggest a similiar strategy here, if you did not already try that, by taking bursts of shots at your best guess at the right moments and see what you get. Your idea of using the flash sounds like you may get some interesting results, but once again, try to go for burst of shots to capture the moments that you could never do by waiting that golden oppurtunity.

[CLKunst]

Thanks for the extra comments folks~

John - I am glad you took the time to look at these images. If you end up defining your feelings about them I welcome your additional input. I think your skills have improved exponentially since you first started posting here and feel quite sure if you had been there with a tripod and a pot of coffee to stay awake you would have gotten some equally interesting images. :thumbsup:

CF - The belly dancer turned out to be a friend of mine! So I will definitely set up a new post with some images of her along with my fire bugs. :devil:

Gary - Thanks for taking the time to comment on these, you picked my favorites of the set posted here. These were done using the burst shot strategy as you suggested. However my selection process for posting images here was probably not as refined as it should have been. I just grabbed a few out of my edits that caught my attention while I was preparing to go out again that night. Just looking for a gut check on some of these images and things to consider while shooting again. It seems the hardest part for me these days is finding the time to sit down and CONCENTRATE on something for more than 10 minutes. Always great to hear from you.

[swmdrayfan]

Cindy,
These have intrigued me, and I keep coming back to them. What were your settings? I've got a yen to try some night shots, and with the 4th coming up, there'll be plenty of opportunities. And thanks for your kind words.
John

There were a couple (I think it's the middle two) that have the fire clipped off, and the bottom shot is my fave, as it's sort of ethereal. I like the reflected light in all of 'em.
John