It has been easily five years or more since I last held a sparkler in my hand. Last Saturday I had a couple of packs of them with me and so tried experimenting with long exposures and painting with light experiments. The above photograph is a self portrait. It is very blurred, but that is due to waving the sparkler around to make the pattern. The images were captured with the camera on the tripod and with a remote shutter release. In this particular shot I tried really hard to keep still, I think it is almost impossible to take an image like this and make the face sharp. The exposure was five seconds on this picture. If you do have a digital camera and have sparklers this type of picture is very easily achieved, even on basic compact cameras. Simply make sure that the camera is supported, on a tripod or table etc. Make sure that you have the flash turned off (in auto or programme modes the shutter speed will then compensate for this). Another setting is to use the self timer to reduce camera shake. Light a sparkler, press the shutter and start drawing crazy shapes in front of the lens. You can even try writing your name (backwards of course).
Sparkler Pattern
