Mother Nature's Son
by k4rp

Comment:
Wild and fantastic! Probably one of my top three for the challenge.

Me Myself and I
by terje

Comment:
Wow, this reminds me about Bear_Music's story about the time he lost a camera....

Neat pic!

Out from somewhere
by LalliSig

Comment:
Six days from now if this isn't on the front page, I will be rather surprised.

Yellow
by SDW

Comment:
Cool picture and fantastic border. Nicely done.

Night Crawler
by elsapo

Comment:
Beautifully lit! Nice use of water to give a dark background with interest.

If this were a challenge, it'd be getting a 10 from me.

Body Heat
by bravo six

Comment:
As always, very high caliber... very nice models with very nice garb...

Spitting Fire
by kyebosh

Comment:
I wonder how many people noticed your hand?

By the looks of things, you have done all your homework, but didn't I read somewhere that using alcohol was one of the more dangerous methods?

I'm no expert... Be careful though, it's pretty dangerous!

Careful...beverage...extremely hot
by Melethia

Comment:
Really nicely done Mel. This was one of my favorites during voting too... It's a bit soft, so I am guessing that your shutter speed was just a tad slow for it... This translates to ambient light on the cup and of course the aperture too... ISO 200 at f/4 might have helped the fire look a bit brighter, while getting it a bit faster might have brought out some lines... Just an idea... I'm also not a huge fan of the foil... I would probably have gone with pulling the black background down to the bottom instead... for safety, you could have lined the non-visible parts of the BG with foil...

O M G !!!
by Ecce_Signum

Comment:
Oh man! You didn't think of any tricks to slow the flame down? Now that is hardcore! Maybe using a bit of wax or something on your fingers to protect them? AYEE! I realize that wax is also flammable, but I think it might burn slower and give you a moment to shoot and put it out...

Take care with those fingers... they are important for camera operation.... and a few other things I think.... Incidentally, there's quite a large number of nerve endings in our fingertips... I guess you know that pretty well now... :)

The lighting is really good in this. I am reminded of my own difficulties with a similar setup... Well done.

hot coffee, cold milk...
by IreneM

Comment:
Mindblowing... The lighting is my gripe, but there ain't much you could have done about it without going with a black BG.... That would have changed the early morning feel of the coffee cup with the soft grey setting IMHO...

This is a fantastic shot without the details, but even more so after reading about it... talk about patience! :)