A Creative Night Shoot – Our Adventure with the glowing steel wool
For a long time I’d been fascinated by the genre known as steel wool photography — and one day, everything finally came together for us to give it a try. A small group of friends teamed up, and we set out to turn the idea into reality.
I watched countless videos, read even more articles and blog posts, and gradually learned the process inside out: how it works, what tools are needed, and what to watch out for. Little by little I gathered everything I thought we might need — not only the flammable material (fine steel wool), a whisk, a leash and a remote trigger, but also safety gear such as work gloves and protective goggles. Safety first.
But since I’m not exactly known for taking the easy route, I didn’t want to capture this spectacular effect on its own. Naturally, I wanted to combine it with running. Not in a “let’s set everything on fire and sprint” kind of way — but rather as if a traveller from another dimension arrived at a portal and ran through into our reality.
I kept replaying the concept in my head: how many flashes I’d need, where to place them, how many people it would take, where we could do this safely, and when.
Once again, I turned to the Cheetahs for collaboration. I invited Bence Marosi to play the role of the traveller — and he said yes immediately. For spinning the glowing steel wool, I needed someone precise, curious, and capable of drawing a clean circle in the air. That’s how Bálint Ureczky joined the project. And to make sure everyone got something out of the adventure, I suggested they swap roles later so we could create images of both of them.
The biggest challenge was choosing the right location. I absolutely wanted to avoid any risk of damage — to buildings, vegetation, or involving firefighters. It was a relief that by the time the day arrived, the area was covered in snow. The nearly perfect location idea came from Bence’s acquaintance, Csaba Németh, a trail runner and photographer: an abandoned former Soviet military base near Budapest.
We agreed on a date, but because of the worsening snow conditions, I asked Szabi Beda to help us get closer by car. He did — yet even so, we still had to walk over a kilometre through deep snow to reach the spot: old earth-covered shelters once used to hide military vehicles. We each grabbed part of the gear (I’d brought quite a lot — you’ll see more of that in the behind-the-scenes video), and set off towards the base with growing excitement.
After a bit of wandering and wrestling with the bushes, we finally found what we were looking for — and I think I can speak for all four of us when I say the place exceeded every expectation.
Darkness was falling fast, so I quickly set up the equipment and built the system. By headlamp light, we walked through the plan together:
Bálint would ignite and spin the steel wool,
Bence would run through the frame,
Szabi would light the crossing point,
I would capture the shot,
then we’d review it together and start again.
Szabi also filmed throughout the whole process, from arrival to departure. I later edited this into a short behind-the-scenes video, which you’ll find at the end of this post.
Over time, the roles rotated. The boys took turns running through the “portal”, spinning the sparks, and handling the lighting.
I’d brought five packs of steel wool — which turned out to be more than enough. We used roughly half, but I kept in mind that the number of attempts was still limited.
In the end, it wasn’t the supplies that stopped us after nearly two hours — it was the cold. As I mentioned, the location had been nearly perfect, but since the shelters were open on both sides, the chill eventually crept in. The runners had to wear light clothing for the shots, and because they were only running in short bursts, they cooled down quickly. We let everyone change back into warm clothes as soon as possible — but eventually we had to admit that if we ever repeat a project like this, it will definitely be a summer project.
We packed up quickly, and in complete darkness — guided only by the sway of our headlamps — we made our way back through the base. Despite the occasional dead end in the bushes, I felt a kind of childlike joy trudging through the snow, even with heavy gear on my back.
It was a special adventure — for all of us, I think. And we were truly happy with the final images… once we had all properly warmed up again, either in the car or at home.
I’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to Bence, Bálint and Szabi for joining me in this experiment; to Csaba for the location suggestion and route planning; and to you, for reading the story of our little adventure.
If you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes story, you might like my other creative running sessions too.
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