There were numerous things that went wrong with this shoot, which I did not become aware of until after during the hours upon hours of editing.  To say it before I present to you these pieces: I don’t like them.  In fact, I loathe them.  Then why this post, you might ask?

First off, it is a visual record.  Having rediscovered my love of fire, unleashing the pyromaniac youth within, stored memories from the times after school alighting pine needles with a magnifying glass to more explosive encounters involving cans of highly flammable RAID and a stack of wood set next to my mother’s house, I love fire.  So, why not shoot it?

Secondly, I want these images to rest upon this web layout as a stage of photographic development.  With this rekindled love of flame, I now have the desire to master the quickest, most intense flash of heat through the lens, and elegantly incorporate it’s fluid speed into my work creating a uniqueness and individuality.

Thirdly, using fire during work makes work so much more exciting.

So I present the first two shots involving TRESemme and fire.  Again, these images are not worthy of due credit or professionalism, therefore I would never finalize them for a client and expect a pat on the back with a fat check.  They’re merely a recording of the road to fire I am just now beginning.

The first one was shot with the bottles on a white background.  These have too many reflections in the cans to represent the product accurately.  Then when shooting the flames I discovered the speed at which they release.  I sprayed the hairspray over a lighter, which singed all knuckle-hairs instantaneously, and witnessed these flames all but vanished on the sensor before the white background.  So I switched it out for black and added a mass of strobes and hot lights.  When I went to composite the images in PS5, I realized the task at hand to mask the black background flames with the white background cans was near impossible for a realistic, sellable product.  Plus, for stop motion, the flames are not frozen, even at 1/1000th of a second!

This next image is an improvement considering the background, but the rest is just an attempt to experiment and learn after staring at a computer screen for 5 hours.  I’m displeased with how both of these turned out, but the learning curve was steep and that’s all that matters right now.

Location: SCCA, Seattle, WA

Camera/Lens Specifics: Canon 5D Mark II with Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM Macro Lens

variety of settings, ISO 100, tripod mount.

Post: Adobe LR3 & PS5