Black and White in Brussels

Friday, 15 May 2009

I spent this Easter in Sandomierz, a small town in the South-Eastern Poland. I found out that this region is particularly copious in folk customs connected with this Christian feast. One of them is BZIUKI and it is performed in the village of Koprzywnica. Each Easter Saturday after the resurrection mass which ends around 10 p.m. there is a procession of priests and the local congregation. The procession is preceded by a number of firemen who march in two rows and blow fires. Each of them carries a bottle of flammable liquid and a torch, they take a sip of this mixture and blow it agains the fire to produce a huge fire column. As the procession moves on in darkness, thay begin to jump and turn around while blowing fire which is particularly picturesque and creates an eerie atmosphere. From the technical point of view I used f 2.8 at 1/60s. which was far too slow. In order not to get the fires overexposed in the photo it is necessary to shoot at 1/125 or even 1/250. I'll wait and see next year.