“Flame you came to me, fire meet gasoline
Fire meet gasoline, I’m burnin’ alive”
Here’s a little insight on me. Next to live music, my next favorite subject to capture is Fire Performing. Maybe it’s the fact that fire performers, similar to musicians, embody passion when they are performing. Or maybe it’s that this water child is drawn to the fire. I’m not too sure which is more accurate though both are definitive reasons for me. I do know this, from my first attendance to a drum circle a few years back, I was hooked.
Of course fire is an entirely different animal to shoot for me. While you can kind of attempt to guess at just how hot a particular movement will make the flame and therefore compensate in your settings, fire is ultimately a creature all in itself. Each time I go and shoot a performance, I am learning how best to capture the flames while still allowing the performer’s love of the art to show through. After all, there are two subjects in every photograph, the photographer and the one in front of the lens. In the case of fire, I try to make that three subjects and that is my goal each time.
Up until now, my experience with fire spinning has been limited to drum circles. Once a month, weather and availability allowing, under the light of the full moon I had to the beach and capture the magic for the evening. I’m sneaky about it too. At this point I’ve come to know some of the spinners yet I don’t announce my arrival. Instead, I sneak in to the spectators and set myself up nice and cozy, hidden in the shadows with the goal of shooting natural performances for the crowd and not the flow for the camera. If I’ve done it right, the spinners don’t know I was there until I post my work online for them to see.
Some of the performers have approached me for private shoots and while I was more than excited for the opportunity, scheduling can sometimes prove to be difficult and up until recently, we had to not been able to take one through to completion. That is until this one guy, Jason Williams of Florida Fire Flow, reached out dead set and making it happen. I’ve captured images of him before during the drum circles and have admired his flow for some time now. The love and energy he puts in to what he does is amazing. Such a great performer, I was more than pleased to comply with his request.
So the date was set. Interestingly, when the day came, we had a different set of difficulties. It was windy and rainy but… we did it. Now that I’ve delivered his images to him, I’ve come to share with you my favorites. There are a few more on my Facebook page which I encourage you to check it as well. You know that I appreciate you taking the time. And oh, if you need a performer for one of your events, do so drop him a line. You won’t regret it. You can contact him via his website as well as his Facebook page. Check it out.
