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It was fitting that we Ugly Americans began our first Chinese adventure on July 4th, 2006: fitting not only because we are Americans and ugly, but because we love fireworks, too — all points that are made indisputably obvious in the following picture of Charlie and George, taken late on that celebratory day.
(Author’s note: In a recent missive entitled Yorksucks.com, Critic Jeremy asked, “Let us click on your pictures to enlarge them, you control freak.” Well click away, Jare Bear.)
Being older and arguably wiser on this year’s adventure, it’s nearly a week into our trip before we risk setting off the fireworks we’ve had strapped to our motorbikes these last several hundred kilometers.
Every man’s got his role: York’s the photographer, George’s the igniter, and Charlie is the talent. “Wait till they’re all lit… Now run!”
Getting a good fireworks jumping photo requires precise control of not only explosives and jumping, but flash photography and — in our particular case — drunkeness, too. The motorcycle taxis and mopeds zipping headlamplessly across our literal field of fire further complicate the task.
Your typical jumping shot is all about timing: auto-timing, specifically. You set the camera’s shutter to release 10 seconds after you press the button, then you press that button. Now you have to scramble out to your designated position in front of the lens, make sure you can see the flashing red light countdown, and tense yourself to leap at what you hope to be just before the shutter clicks.
Tonight is different. York is shooting, so there’s no need for auto-timing. The fireworks are the variable in this equation. We’re fairly confident we’ll get a good jumping shot every time, but what’re each of these Chinese fireworks going to do when we light their fuses? Each one seems to have a wholly unique incendiary intention.
Advantageously for the photographer, to get good shots of exploding ordnance, he has to stand well away from ground zero. The igniter and the talent, however, must be as close to it for as long as they can endure in order to produce a worthy image.
When a jumping photo works (generally on the fourth try, unless you’ve got a team of seasoned pros,) the result rewards your expended energies. You’ve not only captured a memory (and you’ll find that repetitive jumping with friends in public tends to be memorable,) but your souvenir is the picture you worked so hard and undignifiedly to create.
That proves certainly true for this midnight Chinese firework photo shoot. After a string of beautiful and hilarious failures, all the elements find their way into one frame. George lights the fuse and gets away just enough to leave a shadowy reminder of his brand-new knockoff football socks; Charlie chariots low across the sky like a wintry Helios; and the firecracker unpredictably does just as expected, launching away from us and exploding over the adjacent wheat field without igniting a conflagration.
1 Comment
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By “critic” I’m sure you meant “reviewer” or “analyst” and not “quibbler” or “attacker.” I’m sure of it.
You’ve successfully merged two of my favorite things on this post, Yorkles: fireworks, and the ability to enlarge photos by clicking on them.
There. Now you even get to have a little caption on the enlarged photo. Isn’t that better?