[soosh]

I have a ‘G’ like Kestrana’s. It was in a neighbor’s yard. Some sort of plant stabilizer stake thingie.

http://photos.imageevent.com/ulle17/fark/G_7100.jpg

And here’s another winter reed letter. My ‘A’ in the contest and this one were both done about two years ago – for this purpose if not directly for this theme.

http://photos.imageevent.com/ulle17/fark/D-Reed_7063.jpg

/damn, I might like the D-reed better than the A-reed.

That D is really awesome. I’m somewhat glad you didn’t use it but know it will show up some day.

[soosh]

You missed your ‘automatic win’ with that firework ‘V’, soosh 😉
/great bees!

check the thread. I have another V of fireworks that I liked better.

[soosh]

bees.

T:

H:

W:

H again:

O:

V:

[soosh]

Very nice. I get the same kind of blue skies up here when there’s no clouds or haze from forest fires in the Yukon or whatever.

One of these years, I’m going to spend a summer or more with a 4×4 camper van of some sort just driving all over the American West taking photos.

[soosh]

we’re a complicated people

[soosh]

Congrats to todd_zilla, for the moon shot winner. Have to also mention soosh’s “fog at sunset”, that definitely belongs in a gallery.

Thanks! Here’s the whole set from that day. It was just spectacular. Just on the drive home from work.

http://sacredartichoke.com/sunsetfog

[soosh]

here’s one place:

http://www.ecrater.com/p/8743522/magnesium-ribbon-mg-thermite-ignition-75

I can see myself getting into a lot of trouble with this one.

What the hell is the point of being an adult if you don’t do all the stuff your mom would forbid?

[soosh]

here’s one place:

http://www.ecrater.com/p/8743522/magnesium-ribbon-mg-thermite-ignition-75

[soosh]

I just googled it and found a place that shipped it to me. I’ve never seen it in a hardware store. I think you’d need more of a chemical supply house.

the place I ordered it from, I also got a bunch of copper sulfate for an electroplating experiment.

[soosh]

I LOVE magnesium ribbon. That stuff is so much fun.

I used to play with it in high school. We got it in chemistry lab. I had forgotten about it until a few years ago, when I found out one can buy it really cheap. 150 feet of that stuff for less than $15.

[soosh]

U-Man, explain your steel wool on a wire burning thing. That looks way cool on photo.

http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2007-10/burning-metal

Steel wool burns. Who knew?! It doesn’t burst into flame, but it certainly gets hot and glows and falls apart – especially when you whirl it around. I bought some fine (grade 0000) steel wool, bent a 4 foot length of copper wire around the middle, lit it with a lighter and swung it around. That’s it.

For the photographing part, I used two cameras. Since I have two dSLR’s, it makes it a bit more idiot proof to set up both for these long exposure shots. I used slightly different f-stops and ISO’s and one camera was set for 10 sec and the other for 15 sec. After framing and focusing on the site where I would be, I used shutter release cables and clicked them so that each camera would continue taking pics until I shut them off. Click on cameras…walk to the subject area…light steel wool…whirl around head until it goes out…shut off cameras and get gone.

I forgot to put my hood up during one shot and burned the top of my head. 🙁 Also, wear long sleeves. Burning pieces of metal fly all over the place.

I actually knew, but I thought it required an electrical current. Steel wool and a 9 volt battery is an awesome firestarter emergency setup.

You should buy some magnesium ribbon. It burns intensely white, almost too bright to do anything useful with in a photo, but it’s still pretty cool. I use it for a light source sometimes during really bad weather. Some day the Coast Guard is probably going to pull up on me thinking I’m trying to signal for help on a beach in the middle of the night. I use a butane blowtorch to light it off.

these two are lit by burning magnesium. The wind was about 60mph with gusts near 100.

[soosh]

U-Man, explain your steel wool on a wire burning thing. That looks way cool on photo.

[soosh]

doesn’t rise here for another hour and a half.

[soosh]

seems to be getting better now.

[soosh]

The fark servers seem really slow right now. They’re timing out a lot for me.

[Author]

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