My kitchen smells like hair

[Mr Flibble]

Good grief, I of all people should know what i'm doing around fire, but i've never seen a shot of 40% brandy create so much fire.

I've started to play with food photography, and set up a simple shot this evening of flambeeing. I've taken thousands of photos of fire performing in the past few years so know roughly what i'm doing. I didn't bother composing the shot that well and I didn't use a remote, i just wanted to see what light levels are like from burning brandy that's all. Just an experiment really.

Anyway, I took the precaution of holding the match at the end of a pair of scissors and got everything ready. Normally when i flambee thou the pan isn't as hot as it obviously was with no food in it and when the brandy hit the bottom it started to boil instantly. I knew i didn't have long so lit straight away and wow. The fireball hit my cooker hood and glanced the side of my face. No burns, but a few stray hairs got singed!

I really wasn't expecting the flames to be so big, had I known I'd have set up the camera differently and in the shot bellow you'd be able to see the fire surrounding the cooker hood, but oh well! Here's a low quality shot from the shoot :)

http://media.offline.org.uk/files/pictures/cookery/flambee.jpg

[coconut]

It looks like your saucepan is haunted :D

[Hemlock]

Hahahahahahahahahahaha, these long winter evenings eh?

[Mr Flibble]

Hahahahahahahahahahaha, these long winter evenings eh?

yea, the scourge of being winter and single combined often leads to acts of grave depravity in my evenings :D

[Jacqui]

Did you have a few shots of that brandy yourself before you started??:D
Cool photo!

[thecatspajamas1]

Oh, I know exactly what burning hair smells like- it's terrible!

By the way, in your fire performing, do you ever do "fire swallowing"? I was watching something on tv the other day about fire swallowing and sword swallowing. The woman who does the fire swallowing said she meditates and goes into a trance so that she doesn't feel the pain. I've heard that's what yogis do when they walk across hot coals.

[Seaside]

WooHoo! Love the picture, Mr Flibble! I'm such a pyro. My brother has a picture of me blowing flames somehwere. We were taking turns spitting vodka out of our mouths and catching it on fire. Strictly amateur, of course. I did catch my hair on fire once while playng with my chemistry set when I was little. A lock of it fell down into the burner, but I grabbed it quickly and put it out. It smelled terrible. I have had a few wok fires in the kitchen. Its really kind of fun. As long as nothing bad happens. :o

[SweetLady66]

That picture is awesome!!! At least you are ok and so is your house. Fire scares me! A month or so ago I started the stove on fire, I got it out, but I was scared! That stove started on fire 3 times, now we have a new one.

[Mr Flibble]

By the way, in your fire performing, do you ever do "fire swallowing"? I was watching something on tv the other day about fire swallowing and sword swallowing. The woman who does the fire swallowing said she meditates and goes into a trance so that she doesn't feel the pain. I've heard that's what yogis do when they walk across hot coals.

Personally I don't swallow - I've never really been interested in it (for some reason it seems more girly?). I know plenty of poeple who do thou and the theory and technique behind it. If done properly it doesn't hurt, I would hope that anyone on tv talkign about it knows this. Most likely she was saying that to make it look more mystical and dangerous than it is. If not then she needs to see a doctor!

The same goes for 'hot coals' and 'beds of nails' - if done correctly neither cause pain nor require a trance induced state ;). There's a company in the UK (at least one) which arranges sponsored firewalks for charities. My ex did it and the bulk of the 2 hour training before hand is usual motivational talk to psyche the people doing it up - not actually give them training. Something I did see once which was quite impressive was a guy who stopped his heart from beating/pumping blood for a couple of minutes, grinding broken glass into himself before starting it again. I've seen a guy do the trance thing for full body suspension by hooks, who once strung up then had another hook attacked to him which was used as a swing. It was extremely impressive, but the holes in his skin were well used (they'd been pierced ages ago) and it's debateable as to how much it hurt.


Its really kind of fun. As long as nothing bad happens. :o

Unfortunately firebreathing is rather dangerous, too dangerous (other than the obvious burning aspect also poisoning, chemical pneumonia etc) for most professionals to take the risk doing these days. There've been a number of accidents (http://www.homeofpoi.com/articles/firesafetyvideo.php#An) amonsgt professionals in recent years and it's generally frowned upon/banned from social meets. There's not much skill to it or variations upon, it's really just a parlour trick as opposed to an art form and whilst very impressive the first few times the untrained eye sees it, the novelty does wair off rather fast.

[snaffler]

Home made Pyros you Anarchist :D