Star Fire

Thanks Tony for the feedback on my photo of Half dome offline. It helped very much and I reposted that photo with much more shadow detail.

So I drove back to the Valley in the dark. When I arrived at my campsite on that Sunday night, I think I was the only one there. I could not see another campfire from where I was where as the night before campfires were plenty. It was dead silent. I was hungry but wanted to try a photo that I have had conceptually for years but for one reason or another never tried it. So I set up the camera, it took a while trying to focus on a ground glass in the middle of the dark, but I did the best I could and the focus turned out well. Under headlamp I started my campfire and then started my exposure. I made dinner, ate, then sat by the fire reading and stoking the flames with all the wood I had left. The fire burned for three hours and I just let the film burn as well.

When the fire finally burned out around midnight, I closed the shutter, packed up the camera and called it a night. I was very anxious to see this photo and was exhilarated with how it came out. The trees are entirely lit by campfire which gave them a very eery glow.

Your thoughts and feedback much appreciated. Don't know if this will be seen given its New Year's Day, but my first photo posting for 2013 - Happy New Year!

4x5, Nikkor 75mm, f5.6 (wide open), 3 hours, Fuji Provia 100F