This may only be the tiniest of victories but I am nearing completion of my chess themed marketing campaign and this shot means there is only one more to get to have all the material I need.

As already mentioned, I have had this idea in mind for some time but been unsure how to execute it, especially as I’m terrified of fireworks. (More of that in a mo.)

The shots have all got a strong battle-field feel to them and I will, at sometime soon, post a gallery of the whole series.

In order to get a ‘fireworks’ shot but without having to hold a firework (sparkler really) I needed to do a bit of planning. Playdoh was bought to use as holders for the sparklers and as they are outdoor sparklers and it’s too cold, wet and windy to shoot outside, I needed to take lots of precautions. My studio has been moved around so the table is in the centre of the room so the sparks couldn’t hit my backdrop, I’d got a glass sheet in between the sparklers and the lens of my camera after dire warnings about what they could do to the glass of my precious macro lens. I did lots of shots to test the lighting and all of the other things I needed before setting fire to the sparklers and ‘going for it’. I even had a pile of damp cloths to put out any wayward sparks!

So, why am I petrified of fireworks – well, it stems back to a night that my buddy Colin will remember well. We went to see a show at the Albany in Deptford. We sat in the balcony almost directly above the stage. I think it was ‘Labelled with Love’ we saw that night but I’m not 100% sure. I was wearing one of my home-made creations made from a fabric that melted when it got hot.

At some point during the show, they let off those huge fireworks that are like a fountain – you know, they shoot sparks up from a round base. These ones were big and very spectacular and the sparks were shooting up from directly below our seats. The trouble was, they’re designed to go out by the time they get back to the same level and we were 12 feet above them so we were being rained on by tiny burning particles. My outfit became aerated with all of the tiny holes and I got lots of tiny pin-head size burns on my arms and legs. Colin got burns on his head.

I was desperately trying to brush the sparks off me and getting more and more panicked as I could feel and smell singed skin. It was really frightening and since then I have had a fear of fireworks that is completely irretrievable. I hate them. The only way I will watch them is from the safety of indoors or when they are so far away that they can’t possibly ‘get me’.

So, getting this shot meant overcoming that fear to get those sparklers on the go so it is a victory in more ways than one.

My heart was on a wire last year....in Madrid!