Last night I tried some more light painting only this time rather than using LEDs and torches I used fire. I had read about a technique that involves spinning an egg whisk on the end of a piece of rope that is filled with smouldering steel wool to produce fire circles. This method is similar to spinning a wick doused in lighter fluid commonly used in fire dancing, however the main difference with using the steel wool is that it throws off sparks.
Everything you need to set your garden on fire, I used a 9V battery to light the steel wool |
Naturally I couldn't start making fire circles in my bedroom so I went outside to the back garden. It had been raining all day and for obvious reasons I couldn't do this on dry grass so conditions were ideal.
I set up the camera on a tripod with a 30 second exposure, got into position and lit the steel wool by pressing the 9V battery into the wool at several places. The steel wool was smouldering slowly however as soon as I started spinning the whisk the steel wool literally exploded into a ball of fire spitting out molten steel everywhere.
The shear heat and viciousness of the wool completely took me by surprise. I was expecting the wool to just slowly burn and throw out a few tame sparks but this was like trying to control a firework on the end of a leash.
I wanted the fireball to stop but I didn't dare stop spinning the whisk as the spinning motion was the only thing keeping the flaming wool and the sparks it was spitting out away from my face. Luckily the wool burnt itself out in about 15-20 seconds.
I am in the middle there somewhere. |
I dread to think what my neighbours think of me. |
Some molten steel that has embedded itself onto the kitchen window surface. |