Thanks, I'm glad (tickled ;) ) people are liking my shots - especially the weirder ones that seem a stretch.... I don't POD my own shots very often but they never fail to take me back so I'm always glad when I do.

one_paddle_short - that's a very knowledgeable question - absolutely positively no problem sharing stuff like that if I can put it into words. If it were purposefully planned before hand it would have been planned as two shots and the fire would be prettier but it's only one shot with minimal color and range type global corrections. I had to look at the EXIF data because of the star trails (on the full size image it's obvious the view is pretty much due north). 60 seconds, f 2.8, ISO 400.

The happy lighting balance is because I normally build really small fires anyway as it's just me and this was in August. I doubt there is any flame, only lit up smoke building that exposure over time and that one spark bugs me.

The only reason I was still feeding the fire was because I was alone, wandering around quietly while trying to avoid surprising any large critters. A fire is simply a way for me to make my presence known w/o talking out loud (and I've had to talk rather loud and even swear a blue streak on occasion). Even knowing damn well I'm the only person within earshot I still find it rather embarrassing. If things get good I use up the welcome wood, oh well.