Playing with fire

A little over a week ago we were out at our friend Brian and Connie's house, where we hung out with friends, ate yummy food, listened to music (or played it, in Dave's case), looked at an almost full moon through a telescope, and had a big ol' bonfire (by which Connie made her delicious apple-caramel cake in her Dutch oven)!

This was a good opportunity for me to play with fire.

First, with fast shutter speed...

Then slowing it down a bit...

The day had been quite balmy, but it became cool quickly as the sun went down. This fire kept us nice and toasty on a clear, crisp autumn evening.

By accident (I bumped my camera out of position) I learned that cool effects were to be found/made not necessarily by shooting directly at the flames. Flying embers look interesting, with the 5-second shutter slowing them down to a crazy ribbon dance.

A huge snap, crackle, pop from the fire yielded these streaks.

Stay warm out there. We had our first freeze last night in Athens County.