Smoke photography

I've seen a lot of examples of smoke photography lately, and wanted to give it a try myself. A pretty good amount turned out well, and I'm going to do some photoshop experimenting with the color on a few, but here's the first of the set. This one only has minor edits done in Lightroom.



Here's a diagram of the setup I used to get the shot:


The setup was pretty basic. I had my camera level with the smoke against a black background. I used a Canon Speedlite with a snoot to light the smoke, at a 90 degree angle to the camera and at the same height. The important thing is to light only the smoke, and to not let any light spill onto the backdrop. I shot with a wide angle lens and cropped the images in Lightroom (shot at ISO 100 so that the extreme crops still look good)

After my Photo a Day/365 project ends on December 31st, I'll have more time to update this blog, which will include the rest of the smoke shots!

screw pencils

I really don't like pencils. I believe that it's important to see the progression of ideas, even if they start out terrible. I do not dwell on the mistakes, but with time a mistake can transform into the best idea of all. Much of my work has turned out this way. Countless people stand by the phrase "learn from your mistakes." Shouldn't that apply to art as well?

Don't forget your mistakes. Use ink.

almost there

I'm in the last month of my Photo a Day/365 project. I can't believe I've made it so far...but these last few weeks will be the hardest. I feel like I have no more ideas and everything I shoot is unoriginal and boring. It all feels different, but I'm having trouble seeing the difference.

Photography is still my main love, but I truly can't wait until it's over. Although my eyes have been opened, I feel right now as if I'm just going through the motions.

I would question whether or not my heart was in it, but I think the fact that I'm still going, and I haven't missed a day shows that I do have heart. Love can be exhausting.