Fire and Negative Space

I'll start with the details of this photo. ISO 400, 27mm focal length, aperture at f7.1, and a 1.3 second exposure on a tripod, no flash.
The camera settings sound very weird right? I'd say yes they do.
I had less than 10 minutes to set up and shoot a series of impromptu images. I ran for my camera and decided that spending the extra couple of minutes to grab and set up my tripod will make a difference.
I was trying to get good exposure with out the preparation time that is sometimes needed for less conventional shoots like this one. The LCD screen preview saved me on this one. I shot a couple aperture priority images and got a generic idea of exposure. I quickly switched to Manual mode and dialed what I thought was something close to a correct exposre for what I wanted to achieve. A relatively long exposure was key to grab the trails of the fire. I tweaked a few more times as I kept shooting images and quickly looking at my LCD. I shot a few more and the mini show was done! I was comfortable enough with the exposure that I was also able to put some thought in to composition. I love negative space, so I used it. Also I tried hard not to show in the image that this was done in a back yard.

Long exposure + negative space + the a sense of anonymity from not showing his eyes makes this picture for me. What does it do for you? Good or bad.