Fire Dancer on the Beach

This is a good example of how many complex shots come together. You have a plan then everything changes and you have to improvise and get creative.

This is a shot of Christina fire dancing on a beach in Mexico. I had intended to photograph her much earlier in the evening. I wanted the sky to have some nice evening blue to complement the orange fire, but we missed the window.

More shots below
It took some experimenting with shutter speed and the strobe to get the fire to look the way I wanted. We found a nice balance eventually and were getting some good fire trails and the strobe was throwing nice light on Christina while also freezing her motion. I still wasn’t happy though. The deep black sky in the background wasn’t doing it for me.

We had a small bonfire smoldering on the beach and an extremely powerful spot light we picked up at a Cabo supermarket. It was like $20 and one million-candle power. What a deal!

At some point. someone walked behind the fire with the light and it hit me. A huge shaft of light shot into the sky as it lit up the smoke of our dying fire. It was brilliant. Why didn’t I think of that? So we set it up just behind the fire pointing to the sky and it made the shot. The background just become more interesting. Sometimes things work out.

Gear: Nikon D70 / Nikon 12-24mm F4 lens / Manfrotto tripod w/ ball head / Lumedyne 400w/s portable strobe shot through an 18” umbrella (camera right) / Pocket Wizard Radio Slave

Exposure: ISO 200 F4 ½ second

Here's she is again before the spot light revelation. Same deal: slow shutter and flash camera left.

As always, click any image for the large version. TR