Fire Show - Riviera Maya, Mexico, March 2009

[Charlie_M]

When I was on vacation earlier this month, one of the evening entertainment shows was a fire show. I think the group go all around the Riviera Maya / Cancun area doing them and it was really good. I thought I would try and take a few shots to see how they came out and while I think they're cool (ethereal? not sure how to describe them), I would appreciate some feedback (just in case I ever see another show like that and happen to have my gear on me). All taken with a 40D and 70-200 f/2.8 IS and cropped to remove a lot of background black / blur / heads etc.


70mm, f/2.8, 0.3s, ISO 200.


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70mm, f/2.8, 1/4s, ISO200.


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70mm, f/2.8, 1/4s, ISO200.


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[Bill M.]

Those pics are really cool Charlie. Never been to a fire show before, but now I want to go to one!


Did you experiement with the shutter speed and then just shoot in M mode or were you shooting in Av at 2.8?

[Joel Bookhammer]

Great Pics! Very nice, I tried to pick a favorite but all of them appeal to me equally. I dont think you mentioned a flash in your post (correct me if im wrong), but using a flash to illuminate the subject at the end of the exposure would be cool. But the images you have are great! Do you have anymore [:D].


thanks for posting the pics! Makes me want to go out and play with fire.....ok I'll stick with the kids"sparklers".


joel

[alexniedra]

Awesome!

[Charlie_M]

Thanks for the nice comments everyone.


Bill - I was shooting in Av at 2.8 -
in hindsight because I ended up shooting at ISO200 I probably could
have stopped down some more and increased the ISO but everything was
happening so quickly I was just trying to cope with different
fire-twirling speeds and how bright the fire was burning that I just
tried to concentrate on changing one thing and hopefully getting that
right.


Joel - I didn't use any flash but agree that this could have produced
some interesting results - unfortunately I don't have an external flash (yet) so the combination of a 70-200 and the built in flash probably wouldn't have been a good one. I do have some more on my Flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/charliemccoy/sets/72157615308020952/). I took about 350 pictures during the show (it only lasted about 20 minutes...) and I'm still trying to identify the good ones.


Again, thanks very much. If anyone else has photographed similar things I would be interested to see the results you have got.

[quattrophinia]

Very nice Charlie....