Celebrating creativity through fire and light

Now in its ninth fiery year, the Fire Arts Festival is an innovative fundraiser for an industrial arts education nonprofit called The Crucible, a community that promotes creative expression and the reuse of materials.

The Crucible's Fire Arts Festival kicked off Wednesday in Oakland, Calif., and will continue through the Saturday. CNET News will be there to bring you a more in-depth look at the festival. But for now, here are a few photos from Monday evening's setup to whet your appetite.

The Crucible's Fire Arts Festival is being held at a new, larger site this year in west Oakland, where preparations were under way Monday.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

Elite Yelpers were invited to watch the setup and rehearsal Monday evening, where they lined up for the taco truck and free beer.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

The Fire Arts Festival is The Crucible's largest fundraiser, and this year will feature the world premiere of Dan Cantrell's The Rootabaga Opera.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

The festival will transform the empty lot in west Oakland into a fiery field of belching metal sculptures and incandescent art.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET)

[EdCenter]

Those are really nice shots. As you wrote the article and took the pictures, any chance you can provide some detail on how you made those shots (eg, what camera, any post processing in photoshop or Gimp?). Thanks!

[RichReader]

My favorite performance from last year was Nate Smith's "Fire Vortex". Here's a quick clip:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=25325844749 Many of the other acts are all so other worldly. Two years ago, I drove past the festival on the interstate at the exact moment that the Fire Vortex sent a ball of flame a couple of hundred feet into the air about 100 feet from the roadway. There must have been at least a few motorists soiling their boxers.

[thejamesthing]

Hi EdCenter,

Typically I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark ii with a Canon 24-70 2.8 lens, and process everything first in Bridge and then into Lightroom.

[cvaldes1831]

Nice fast lens, 24mm is wide enough to be interesting. Looks like the second and third shots were shot racked out.

Love them wide-angle lens.

[1missive]

Since this is supposedly large format photography, it would be helpful if you used a large format camera. Maybe you think that big pictures mean large format.