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The Human Catherine Wheel
The Human Catherine Wheel
sarampo


Photograph Information Photographer's Comments
Challenge: Fireworks V (Advanced Editing VII)
Camera: Nikon D90
Lens: Nikon AF-S DX 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 ED VR
Location: Samouco, Portugal
Date: Jul 5, 2011
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO: 100
Shutter: 30s
Date Uploaded: Jul 5, 2011

 Well, finally me and Sam ( Insomniac have managed to get together again to shoot something, it has been a while.

This was a lot of fun to do, and it was meant to be just a test shot, since we've never done this before.

Idea and concept go all to Sam, he remembered this one.

The sparks are created by burning steel wool.
This is dangerous, so please use at your own risk, and be careful.

We tied a piece of steel wool to the end of a steel wire, and then we set it on fire.
Steel wool doesn't exactly burn, it instead melts, but it's so thin that the reaction is very quick and strong.

Give it enough oxygen and it will produce huge sparks.

So just get a wooded shirt, some eyes and hand protection and then swirl the wool in circles, as you can see from the scale, the sparks were over 30-feet high!

Since we had no idea if it was going to be strong or not, we chose an isolated beach, where no fire hazards were present.

Then it's just a long exposure, about 15 to 30 seconds, and the result is this.

Much better examples if you google for "burning steel wool".

A couple of outtakes from that day:


Statistics
Place: 4 out of 62
Avg (all users): 7.0231
Avg (commenters): 8.2857
Avg (participants): 6.8333
Avg (non-participants): 7.0957
Views since voting: 4996
Views during voting: 501
Votes: 130
Comments: 21
Favorites: 3 (view)

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AuthorThread
Nikon D7100
Nikon AF-S DX 18-105 f/3.5-5.6 ED VR
 07/19/2011 10:41:02 AM
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
This is very nice. I was one of your 10's — I was surprised it didn't ribbon, but HM is sweet too "-)


Thanks Robert :) Can't complain, since it started as a fun experiment, but we did learn from it, which is more important.
Regards,
Joao
Samsung Galaxy S24, S24+, S24 Ultra
Sony Vario-Tessar T* FE 24-70mm f/4 ZA OSS
 07/19/2011 09:27:46 AM
This is very nice. I was one of your 10's — I was surprised it didn't ribbon, but HM is sweet too "-)
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D3s
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED
 07/14/2011 09:51:05 AM
Congrats on the HM. I enjoyed the creativity on this shot. Thanks for sharing the "how to"!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/13/2011 08:25:40 AM
Congrats Joao! Very difficult to achieve such perfection with this technique. You have created magic here! Congrats on the HM!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/13/2011 08:25:39 AM
Congrats Joao! Very difficult to achieve such perfection with this technique. You have created magic here! Congrats on the HM!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-550D Rebel T2i
Sigma 18-50mm f/2.8 EX DC for Canon
 07/13/2011 03:35:22 AM
Congratulations my friend, great to see you back in the top 10 where you belong.

To anyone thinking about playing around with this idea, take João's advice seriously: two small sparks landed on my (cleverly) unprotected hand and the burns are only now just about healed.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 07/13/2011 02:18:19 AM
Awesome!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-6D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro IS USM
 07/13/2011 12:53:07 AM
an 8 from me... wonderful work!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max
Tamron SP AF 17-50mm f/2.8 Di II LD Aspherical (IF) for Nikon
 07/13/2011 12:10:51 AM
Waaaay cool!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
 Comments Made During the Challenge
Canon EOS-7D
Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC Macro for Canon
 07/11/2011 11:10:33 AM
that is totally cool.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-60D
Tamron AF 18-270mm F/3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD with Piezo
07/10/2011 09:50:08 PM
One of my favorites! I like this composition alot, different from the rest!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D70s
 07/10/2011 04:58:14 PM
top 5 for sure.its amazing
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-550D Rebel T2i
Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM
 07/09/2011 09:56:19 AM
maybe this is winner
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Pentax K10D
Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AF
 07/08/2011 11:40:34 AM
It's a great set up...10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D90
Nikon AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 24-120mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED VR
 07/07/2011 05:25:22 PM
WOW
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-7D
Sigma 17-70mm F2.8-4 DC Macro OS HSM
 07/07/2011 05:09:08 PM
This looks very similar to some shots I saw on another site recently... Great photo, well executed.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D750
Nikon AF-S Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED
 07/07/2011 11:54:09 AM
That is so cool!
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon EOS-6D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 L Macro IS USM
 07/06/2011 09:15:46 PM
Fabulous!



I may or may not be voting, so please do not equate my comment with any score.
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Nikon D60
Nikon AF-S DX Zoom Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED
 07/06/2011 01:51:31 PM
very good idea & editing - 9
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Canon Canon 1d x Mark II
Sigma 85mm f/1.4 FG HSM Art
 07/06/2011 01:03:22 AM
Whoaaa, great stuff. 10
  Photographer found comment helpful.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX85
Olympus 30mm f/3.5 Macro M.Zuiko Digital ED
 07/06/2011 12:36:47 AM
Nice! This looked to fun to pull off
  Photographer found comment helpful.
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