Lateral Flames

Jun.29, 2008

Back from a weekend of camping. Didn’t get that many shots, but did a bunch of the campfire using my 55mm F 1.8 lens. First one taken at 1/250th second, second one 1/10th second. The (relatively) low light capability of this lens came in handy for this setting. I suspect it’s nice Bokeh capability helps even though there really isn’t any Bokeh in these shots. On the second shot some fairly gusty winds made the flames almost lateral. Note though the eddies, especially on the right, were the flame is actually wrapping around the wood and going into the wind.

3 comments for this entry:

just roaming the cities
June 30th, 2008 on 12:05 pm
Wow, I like the dancing flames. I did the same at my last campfire and played with the settings on my simple 7-megapixel digital camera, and got an okay result. Yours is better!
snapshutter
June 30th, 2008 on 5:41 pm
I’ve done campfire shots before but this is the first time they turned out. I think the difference is using the f1.8 lens which is fairly decent under low light conditions, and the wind. The flames were really getting whipped around on the second shot. To get a similar effect without the wind would mean longer exposure (that one was 1/10th second, surprised I was steady enough) which in turn would mean tripod, a klutzy proposition around a camp fire for sure.
Dusty Lens
June 30th, 2008 on 10:22 pm
Bravo! I’ve tried in vain many times to capture the dancing flames from a campfire. Very difficult in the low surrounding light. I gave up and shoot the resultatn embers as the fire dies out. Much easier this way, except there is no dancing flame.