Whoosh!

New Year's Eve. Cusco, Peru. A friend of mine, not quite drunk enough yet to hold a large bottle rocket in his own hand, asked a nearby local inside his car if he would do the honors. Obligingly, he held the rocket's stick loosely in his hands while my inebriated American friend lit the fuse and stood back. What resulted was one of those fantastically lucky timed shots! I knew what was going on and had my PowerShot s30 ready, but it was having difficulty with the auto focus/exposure in the nighttime settings. As the fuse started to burn down, I gave up and just mashed the shutter release button down, hoping for anything. Eventually the camera's electronics locked on and chose to go with a long exposure (about 1 second) with a flash. I think the resulting picture speaks for itself -- I only wish it wasnt handheld...!