A Beautiful Flame

(NOTE: Based on time elapsed since the posting of this entry, the BS-o-meter calculates this is 15.678% likely to be something that Ferrett now regrets.)

While I do adore fireplay, it doesn’t photograph well.  For one thing, you actually need three people to capture fireplay on film; the person applying the flame, the flamee, and a third person, since you really can’t take pictures and set someone on fire.  At least not safely.
Then there’s the fact that while I find flame to be one of the most beautiful things in the world – I used to stare into my grandparents’ fireplace for hours – it doesn’t photograph well, if you’re an amateur like me.  Either you get this blob of blazing orange and no people, or a washed-out ghostly effect hovering above skin.  But apparently, thanks to a better photographer than me (that’d be Miranda), it turns out the trick is to keep the shutter speed low.
So then, you wind up with stunning little pictures like this.  My flame, not my tattoo.  But pretty nonetheless.  And an indication of why I do love to set women on fire; it’s adding beauty to beauty.
Fireplay, Captured

7 Comments

  1. alexander hollins
    Nov 30, 2012

    That… is wonderful. It looks like a little feathery wing….
    Hey, just a thought. You can’t set a whole person on fire, but… you could probably do it limb by limb, and stitch it together? so you get a picture of real limbs on fire that looks like the person was completely on fire. Just a random thought.

  2. Jennifer
    Nov 30, 2012

    That shot is lovely.
    Alexander’s idea is interesting, although I have the rather icky experience of seeing burned bodies, as well as burning bodies, so the stitched together picture isn’t quite as appealing as it might otherwise be. The single limb, with the flame overlaid on a tattoo is a deliberate artistic choice. An entire flaming human is…not so much, in my brain. As always, YMMV.

    • alexander hollins
      Nov 30, 2012

      Jennifer, I think my mental image is largely of wing like flames, rather than full immolation. no human torches for me either!

      • Jennifer
        Dec 3, 2012

        Oh good. I have a weirdly wired brain, so I kinda went with the oddball image. 🙂

  3. Mark
    Nov 30, 2012

    Given the uniqueness off the tattoo and the topic of the picture, there’s a really good chance the woman in this photo is my ex. I find my world is too small.

    • TheFerrett
      Nov 30, 2012

      If her name begins with an “N,” yeah, it’s a very small world.

  4. Ann
    Dec 2, 2012

    There’s a cute little app that makes animated gifs on the fly, gifboom (there may be others). I did a fire with it, a 30 frame loop. It was prettier than a still. This is really cool, your photo.

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