Warding off the devil

Around midnight, at the beginning of the New Chinese Year, shopkeepers set off strings of firecrackers on Lamma Island, to ward off the devil.

This happens spontaneously and at random around the village and is an alarming noisy and sometimes dangerous spectacle. I managed to get hit on the head by a firework shell which exploded above my head.

Although impossible to predict what's going to happen where and when, I managed to get a few good pictures, but chose this one because it shows the reaction of two tough guys to the noise and violence of the gunpowder.

Also if you look at the ear of the man in profile, there is a little burst of fire double exposed onto it. This was not done in photoshop by me, but the result of a time exposure and fill-in flash.