My other cousin, Spencer, asked me if I wanted to go with his friends, Lex and Matthew, and attempt to take pictures of a steel wool on fire. The effect is very cool and in a sense it is a form of light painting. Matthew bought all the supplies, which included a metal chain, egg beater, the steel wool, and a lighter. In the end, Matthew was saying that using a 9V battery will start the steel wool on fire very easily. The slight breeze this night made it a little difficult to light the steel wool.

The guys had the idea of heading down to Marshall Beach to do it. I let them know that it was high tide at the late hour we were out there. I suggested to go by Chrissy Fields where we can capture the Golden Gate Bridge in the back ground. We wanted to make sure that there was no vegetation around to catch fire since we haven’t been getting too much rain and drought is upon us. This area was perfect. Just a note: The gate that blocks the road to Fort Ord is closed at 10pm and the park ranger comes by about every hour to check to see if anyone hopped the gate.

If was a lot of fun. It was very challenging to figure out the proper exposure so the Golden Gate Bridge can be somewhat exposed properly but at the same time the steel wool doesn’t over expose the pictures. I found that f/5, ISO 100, and 15 sec exposure where good settings. I did open the shutter several seconds (2-5) before the steel wool was lit and about 2-5 secs after it went out. Here are some of the best pictures.

In the last picture, my Tiger Woods Gold Umbrella survived!

Thanks guys for a cool night!

~Greg