American in Spain

Striking Matches

April 29, 2009
Striking Matches

My friend, Alan, sent me a link the other day to this awesome post about photography tips, which had a link to a page on smoke art photography, which I have got to try. The problem is that I don't own, nor have I ever owned, any incense, which is rather critical to the smoke photography concept, at least for beginners. But that got me thinking as to whether or not I could capture the striking of a match. Last night I made a few attempts to capture a match strike, trying various methods. I'm not all that happy with the results, but some of the shots are pretty nice. Striking Matches

First I tried a strobe flash technique like I used for the coin bouncing, but that didn't work very well. All the rest of the photos are from single one or half second long exposures with no flash.

Striking Matches

A spark, but no flame.

Striking Matches

Ignition! At this point I realized I needed a lower point of view.

Striking Matches

Cool smoke!

Striking Matches

I tried going the other way.

Striking Matches

This is my favorite, because you can clearly see the arc of fire coming off the matchbox. If I do any more of these, I think I'll have to try a slightly wider angle.