Fire knife competitions are by far the most challenging thing for me to photograph. During the competitions I am not allowed to use a flash, and the goal is to freeze the dancer but keep the shutter open long enough to get a full circle of fire. For example I keep my shutter for 1/10th of second for the very fast start off and 1/8th to 1/6th when they slow down. I consider how much gas is on the knife or how many knives the dancer is using since 1, 2 or 3 fire knives can quickly change the lighting. The last variable is time, I only have a few minutes to capture each competitor. After I fill up a card the images are taken and sent to the Asociated Press. I don’t even have a chance to look at them, so there is very little room for error.
I staged the first 4 photos below that are going to be used for the 20th annual fire knife competition advertising for next year. The last 5 are some of my favorites from this most recent competition.
The first time I saw this post, I thought, I’ve got way too much work to do to get side tracked into Mark’s latest and coolest. Plus, I’ve seen great fire knife stuff, so I’ll survive if I miss this one. …. too tired of plowing away at the endless workload and needed a creativity break. Lucky I meandered back to you. These are to die for, blow me away, photos! I’m stunned by how you’ve taken something extraordinary and then put it in a totally new level of EXTRAORDINARY with your lens and angles. Love it!!!
Thanks Dolly, it was a lot of fun creating these images.
Polynesian fire knife dancers are among the best in the world, and the video below may very
well prove that.