Flag Burning

I shot a Veteran's Day Ceremony this afternoon in Fort Valley. Our little town has its Veteran's Day Ceremony on Sunday each year. Seems more people will come on Sunday than a weekday.
The last couple of years, the Boy Scouts have done a Flag Retirement Ceremony at the conclusion.

I have shot quite a few Flag Retirements and have always been not quite satisfied with my images. I have gotten some okay stuff, but wanted something that was a real grabber. The flames and flags always make an interesting photo, but this year I decided to really work it.

The old flags are cut up before burning. The blue field is cut out first and used to hold each stripe as the flag is cut apart. The last two stripes are used to tie the bundle, then the flag goes into the fire. Two scouts were holding the blue star field as their scout master cut away a part of the flag and then dropped it into the field of blue.

Today they were positioned so the sun was coming down through the blue, really making the stars show up. I dug out my 10mm, and got down low so I could see the backlight through the flag. It looked really good. Then the scout master came into the frame.

WOW!!! I had my photo. His silhouette jumped out through the flag, with just a bit of flare from the sun popping over his shoulder. It was also magnified about four times bigger which really helped.

I had a decent flaming flag photo to make my package. I am a happy man.