Fire Devil
So peculiar and always intriguing how imagination forms phantasmic shapes.
1-4000 sec exposure of a fire tornado exhibition in a science museum.. ...
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So peculiar and always intriguing how imagination forms phantasmic shapes.
1-4000 sec exposure of a fire tornado exhibition in a science museum..
Read less
1-4000 sec exposure of a fire tornado exhibition in a science museum..
Read less
Aug, 2017Views
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Awards
Action Award
Zenith Award
Top Shot Award 21
Legendary Award
Contest Finalist in Anything Fire Photo Contest
Peer Choice Award
Contest Finalist in Shooting Fire Photo Contest
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Outstanding Creativity
Superb Composition
Absolute Masterpiece
Peer Award
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
Virtuoso
All Star
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Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
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Behind The Lens
Location
The photo was taken in the Singapore Science Centre.Time
The museum has everyday at 3pm at the courtyard, the “Fire Tornado Show”. It is a special, purpose built glass enclosure, about 8 to 9 meters tall which is designed and built with angled flaps on the bottom, like wings, to let in air through into the enclosure to cause a vortex (you can see picture from their website http://science.edu.sg/events/Pages/showsdemonstrations.aspx ) There is a metal platform on the bottom which is filed with gasoline. When the fuel is ignited, the fire, heating the air causes it to rise, the air coming through the angled inlets create a circular motion, vortex, and eventually a fire tornado.Lighting
The courtyard has natural lighting. The fire tornado is contained within the glass enclosure. A shot taken with a shutter speed of anything less than 1/1000 shows at the background the visitors and surroundings.Equipment
The picture was taken with a Canon 700D, Tamron 24-70mm f/2.8 Di VC USD, with settings of 1/4000s, 47mm, f/4.5, ISO100, RAW, AWB, no tripod, no flash, no special lighting setup.Inspiration
The long, twisting and turning fire tornado itself in motion was amazing to see. It stretched all the way to the ceiling, touching the exit duct. Although it has a noisy (picture wise), crowded background, your eye and mind focuses on the fire, mesmerizing really. Most of the crowd was taking pictures with auto settings on their DSLR’s or Phone Cameras. I wanted to a picture with the focus on the fire tornado and seclude the background distraction. I turned the shutter speed to the highest setting possible on the camera and started taking multiple shots at various distances, aperture settings. I wanted to catch a frame, that would document how our attention was focused on the fire tornado itself with little or no conscious of surroundings.Editing
The shots were looking curiously interesting on the small screen behind the camera, but have realised the spectacular beauty after downloading them to light room on the computer. I was going through hundreds of shots, some from closer to the object, some from further away, with less detail but showing the length of the tornado. One particularly caught my attention. Not that, it had anything particularly more than the others, still the same contents, the fire, but, as the brief explanation that I put under the picture, “So peculiar and always intriguing how imagination forms phantasmic shapes.” Even 1/4000 shutter speed was not enough to entirely darken the background. I did do post vignetting in order to darken the background. This also amazingly brought the attention, focal point to the fire streaks that almost look like a familiar human head shape.. or how actually our mind with rapid identification is creating illusory likeness.In my camera bag
I am usually bit overloaded as I really do not know were my curiosity will take me. I have usually two Canon’s bodies with me. The InfraRed converted 450D (by LifePixel) and either my 700D or recently the 77D. I have in the bag almost always the Canon EF-S 15-85mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM lens with Hoya R72 and Heliopan RG 610 Infrared filters, Tamron 24-70 f/2.8 Di VC USD, Canon 16-35mm 1:2.8 L USM, EF-S10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS STM, JOBY GorillaPod Focus with Ballhead X, Canon RC6 Wireless remote controller, JJC MT-636 multi exposure timer and remote control.Feedback
I am a self-thought photographer with an interest at a wide spectrum of subjects. I could never channel my interest and focus on a specific subject or object, like, for example a particular interest and obvious portfolio in only portrait or landscape photography. I guess it comes from being always eccentrically curious to catch and document what the eye and mind can’t see and process. The photo can be a split-second event, a moment that is too fast for the eye to catch, an accumulation of data that can be put into a single frame which is too much for the mind to grasp collectively as one, “the long exposure”, or even experimenting and with an eternal curious mind trying to see and understand what we physically can’t see – the broader spectrum going into InfraRed and UltraViolet. I am not a professional photographer and definitely do not see myself a one of the good ones out there. But I am a curious person and positively enjoy photography. Not getting an interesting, amazing, spectacular shot each and every time does not desist my passion but only fuels my ambition to explore and learn more. Just get out there, experiment and have fun.
