Helen Stephenson's Chislehurst Fireworks Bonfire and Funfair Pictures, 3rd November 2007

Last year we left it a bit late to get a good spot to view the bonfire, so we went straight to the bonfire area when we arrived at about 6:30pm. This gave us the opportunity to take some night time pictures of the bonfire before it was lit. The sky was a spectacular amber colour. Some might cry "light pollution" but it made for interesting pictures!

We were in the best possible position to see the guy burning this year. The flames obscured him a lot of the time, but he can be made out in these three pictures. In the final one, there isn't much of him left!

Here is the heart of the bonfire. The cross at the top is where the guy was.

I find that trying to include the bonfire in a picture of trees lit by bonfire light doesn't work because the bonfire is so much brighter than everything else in the picture, so I made sure I didn't include the bonfire itself in these pictures of the trees and the crowd lit by honfire light.

The next two pictures of the crowd have been included as two different versions: one as lit by bonfire light; and then a second where I've selected an area of light clothing as a grey point and reconverted my RAW file to give a picture which is "colour corrected". It is interesting that removing the red colour sharpens up the picture. It looks like some of that red light flying about wasn't all in focus!

At that point, we went and watched the fireworks, and then we returned to the bonfire for some pictures of the embers.

I didn't take as many pictures of the funfair this year, but I couldn't resist the mini ferris wheel, captured here both still and in motion.

I had another shot at the alligator ride. This was my best attempt.

I also photographed some of the cuddly toys on one of the sideshows. I think that the cuddly unicorn probably works better as a hanging toy than the other fluffy toy does, but the other one reminds me of a friend's Maltese dog, so I had to put it up too.