Fiery dervish

[ucci]

Just having a clean-up 'bonnie' of some old fallen gum tree bits and pieces. The swirling, almost corkscrew effect, of the flames caught my eye, and so......
Thanks for viewing and any c&c you might wish to offer
old ucci

[speedneeder]

Hi Ken, I have tried to take some neat fire pics myself. I have not figured out how to make them as interesting in photos as they are in person. In this case, perhaps a faster shutter speed would have captured the shape better? Did you take other photos? In this photo, the interest to me is the flame surrounding the brush, not the flames above the brush pile? I can't tell you why that is though, so I don't think I've been much help. Maybe it's just tough to take fire pics in the daylight?

[ucci]

Hi Ken, I have tried to take some neat fire pics myself. I have not figured out how to make them as interesting in photos as they are in person. In this case, perhaps a faster shutter speed would have captured the shape better? Did you take other photos? In this photo, the interest to me is the flame surrounding the brush, not the flames above the brush pile? I can't tell you why that is though, so I don't think I've been much help. Maybe it's just tough to take fire pics in the daylight?

Hi Brian
Yes I agree. The actual fire and what I saw was far more dramatic than the captured image. I took quite a few pictures most of which I discarded. The only other one I kept was this one. You are probably quite right in your assessment that taking a picture of flames and fire is not an easy thing to do.
Cheers
Ken

[speedneeder]

Hey Ken,
Looking at the different crop makes me realize that isn't the crop at all that seems off to me.
It's the lack of separation of the flames, and the bright sky in the corners.
So, I did a quick edit. It was fun for me to do, as I've not done a whole lot of it. Basically I created an overlay layer to increase contrast, did some selective darkening around the flames to reduce attention to the grass, and did some sharpening. I imagine the background is further from what it really looked like, but the flames may be closer to what you remember?

[ucci]

Great job Brian! That's the effect I was trying to capture! Thank you for that.
ken

[speedneeder]

Glad you like. Keep shooting

[JohnC]

The first shot looks like the beginning of a so-called 'fire tornado' but properly called a 'fire whirl' Ken. Akin to 'dust devils' Air is drawn in as the heated air rises. and the flames start to rotate. This is what can happen with large fires. http://www.google.co.uk/search?tbm=i...l1600l3.9l12l0