Sparkly

After all the photos I took over the weekend and the good weather, it was inevitable the rain would be back on Monday and my energy levels would be low (I was on my feet almost all day Sunday at the carnival more photos are posted here).

I saw this article and thought it an interesting and simple idea (to photograph sparks on a lighter) so I thought I'd give it a go. I found it rather difficult to get the timing correct, I kept striking the lighter when I heard the camera noise, which is probably too late. I did this holding the camera in one hand on "continuous shooting" and the lighter in the other hand.

I took 150 photos using different lighting and camera settings and only got 2 half decent shots of sparks! Admittedly it was an old lighter which more than half the time didn't spark! I think if I used a new lighter with a tripod and either a cable release or digital timer I'd have got better results (might try that another time).

I did a little post processing on the image, mainly to crop it and darken the background, but the sparks and flame are pretty much untouched from the original image.