The wind from earlier in the day had died down and all signs pointed to it being a pleasant evening. It seemed like a great time to have a fire in our fire bowl in the backyard.
You know those survivalist types on television who can get a fire going with a steel and flint or a string and stick or perhaps a match they have hidden in the hilt of their survival knife? Yeah, that’s not me. Apologies to my neighbours who I may have smoked out while I was getting the sucker going.
Not that smoke is necessarily a bad thing from a photographic perspective. I took a crap tonne of smoke shots and plan to merge them into tricolour abstract images later. The above is just one sample of what is coming.
For me, shooting a fire is like shooting performance art. You’re never going to get the exact same thing twice, there will always be differences. That’s why this is a subject I can keep coming back to. That and I may have had some pyro tendencies as a preteen. (cough)
The fire eventually burned down to some very colourful and hot coals that danced in the waning light of the evening. This is my favourite part of a fire to photograph so I had at it with both Ray’s Canon EOS 7D he left me and I also snagged some shots with my Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra phone. The problem with using the phone with standard telephoto is that you have to get fairly close in for a picture. It might take a week or two for the hair on the back of my hands to grow back.
It was around this time that my wife and daughter busted out the package of marshmallows and the roasting forks. I was offered a fork of my own to toast mallows with, but I demurred. There was an incident when I was around six where I ate a super hot marshmallow and wound up with second degree burns over most of my tongue and the roof of my mouth. I haven’t been a fan of the wretched things ever since.
We did consume root beer from chilled A&W mugs gifted to me by one of my bosses, which I am incredibly grateful for. Very few things are better than root beer from a chilled mug, and a mug from A&W no less.
The Missus told me that there were some flowers blooming along the fence behind the pine tree so I should have a look. I found Columbines, lupins, and soapwort. She also advised of some daisies growing behind the evil frakkin’ rose bush in the back driveway, so I got that as well. I’m not kidding about the rose bush, by the way. I am certain that it is actually a Cenobite disguised as a plant.
It was starting to get dark and the mosquitoes had come out to play so we doused the fire and headed inside. It was nice to spend a pleasant evening with the fam fam enjoying a fire in our backyard and I am thankful for it. I’m looking forward to much more of this as the summer progresses.
Today’s cameras were Ray’s old Canon EOS 7D with a 70-300mm EF IS USM f4-5.6 lens and my Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra for some select fire images. I can’t remember which ones. If you are curious they are the ones that smell like burning hair.
