Patriotic Burn, a photo from Vermont, Northeast

Photographer's Note

Watched a pirate show at the Champlain Valley Fair. The show depicted the pirate life at sea. Several "pirates" would perform acrobats and jump into a pool of water from a huge inflated boat. They even did the "walk the plank." This guy walked up this tall structure, lighted himself, waited for a few seconds till he was fully engulfed in flames, and then jumped into the pool of water. And, that was the end of the pirate show. Clap, clap, clap!!

Here's a picture of the same person in flames from a little further. This picture shows how high he was, and the big inflatable boat I was talking about.

I called this picture the "Patriotic Burn" due to the flag but I was going to name it "For Love of Country."

Kititit has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

Hasvelt (90) 2006-09-02 23:36

Hello everyone,
Really interesting work,I thought that it was taken from Iraq ...I thought it is a oil burning close to american flag hmmm,thanks for note that is informative for me :)) original perspective
good weekend

Janice (4403) 2006-09-03 5:33

Hi Harjit those flames look very hot. What a job! It looks very dangerous to me.
Yout timing was good, with the flames burning so brightly and hotly behind him. It is intersting, but rather mad!:)))
Cheers
Janice

boarbert (0) 2006-09-03 13:22

Haha, I also thought this was from a war zone at first glance...

Great dramatic sky in the background. The sky and the lines crossing really add to the sense of general chaos. :D

I wonder though, did real pirates preform acrobatics and light themselves on fire?! :S

adam_k (600) 2006-09-04 3:24

Hmmm... The picture looks much more gloomy than this 'innocent' note...

Once when I was a child I visited some kind of a fire-brigade circus (actually more circus than real firemen :) where they played similar tricks...

Kititit (813) 2006-09-05 9:55

hello,
it seems to me that your stormy skies caught for real my attention!
this photo is great for 2 reasons:
1 - the superb contrast between major grey colours and the fire colours
2 - the way the frame help our eyes organising the info in the photo
you caught the perfect timeing to shoot the flames like that.
note helps undestanding the photo.

thanks for sharing
regards, rita

mlsiple (0) 2006-09-06 8:46

Excellent contract between the dark sky and the burning person. Nice point of view.

KevRyan (22956) 2006-09-09 14:13

A striking and unusual image Harjit - quite something - it has an awful range of possible symbolic interpretations but as entertainment you've got to admire the courage of this guy - the things some people will do for money!

best wishes Kev

Did I ask you before if you have relatives in the UK?

dcawker (5717) 2006-10-16 8:23