bonfire 1
5.29.19
The week before I left for Japan, my EMT buddy Neil invited me over to his backyard and said that we were going to build a bonfire. Interested in the prospect and itching to try out my new camera, I naturally obliged, arriving as the veil of night had just begun to fall. I watched as Neil expertly arranged the kindling in his makeshift fire pit, while his two exuberant dogs raced back and forth across the yard chasing insects.
Before long we had a raging fire casting long eerie shadows upon the dew-soaked grass. The intense orange of the flames and saturated blue of the sky formed a complimentary pair that was a photographer’s dream. As the darkness began to envelope everything save the fire and anything immediately next to it, I had a perfectly uncluttered background that allowed me to focus only on my subjects.
Though the fire itself already provided enough of a spectacle, I soon found a way to add even more fanfare to the lightshow. When Neil got up and began to strike the fire with a stick in order to stoke the flames, I noticed the explosion of sparks that immediately came into existence and filled the air. In the camera, they created a magical bokeh effect that stole the show. Hundreds of photos later, we sat back and munched on falafel and marshmallows, as we watched the fire burn deep into the night.
