This blazing circular trail of fiery streaks, is a rendition of steel wool photography from a previously unseen perspective. For the uninitiated, steel wool photography is a form of long exposure photography in which the hot blazing embers of rapidly spinning steel wool are captured in the form of the streaks of light thereby creating spectacular frames, each different from the other. Imagine a campfire or welding but instead of sparks of fire, you see threads and streaks.
Steel wool photography has been popular for a while and has always been a creative artist’s pursuit. I was no exception.
The possibilities of long-exposure photography are endless and the end result usually is a work of art that our naked eyes cannot perceive. When you combine that with a bird's eye view, you get pure magic. A light bulb moment on an uneventful night during the pandemic, I realised that this technique was almost never used with a drone, and for a good reason. A quick internet search confirmed this - there were almost no drone-shot steel wool photos.
A drone is not the typical equipment of choice to shoot long-exposure images, owing to the multitudes of variables like wind speed and the device's low visibility in darkness. But when done right, the results are extremely satisfying.
The green canopies of the trees rustling in the wind give the image a shimmering soft velvety glow. The steel wool embers formed a lovely pattern of radiating beams around a nearly perfect circle - a spectacle that can only be described as a dance of fire and light - and what a performance it was! A change of perspective and a spark, that’s all it took!
