24 lights bulbs, one power strip, one lamp, one hammer, one plastic Ziploc bag, and one fire extinguisher. Those were the supplies I had for this challenge.
A bit more background. I read this, and watched the video: //craigcolvinphotography.com/light-bulb-smoke-photography-tutorial. Then I bought two 12 packs of clear 60W bulbs, went home, and started smashing. Out of the first 6 bulbs, I had a single usable broken bulb. Then I got a little better with the next 6, getting 2 more. Then I discovered the secret. My large pack of bulbs came with some cardboard spacers. Using these spacers I was able to get 10 good bulbs out of the next 12! Sweet!
With the broken bulbs, I setup with my camera, fire extinguisher, and lamp. Carefully screw in a bulb, start the camera firing, and turn on the switch. 2 seconds later, you will have some shots.
The other secret that is important is to use a low power flash with a snoot. This lights up the smoke in a way the filament cannot do. I have some later shots were I stopped using the flash, and it turned out this was a bad idea. The smoke would only be lit if very close to the bulb, instead of all the way up.
I got about 8 good shots out of this setup. This is definitely one of my favorites with how the smoke is moving.
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I must admit, I'm a little disappointed with second place. I thought for sure I was finally going to get that elusive blue ribbon. But then the last 36 hours came, and I dropped approximately 0.4 points. I couldn't believe how seemingly each vote was bringing me down.
But then, as I look to this again, I am indeed happy. My third ever highest scoring image. My 13th ribbon! My 4th score above a 7.
I am happy :)
Statistics
Place: 2 out of 50 Avg (all users): 7.1845 Avg (commenters): 9.0000 Avg (participants): 7.1515 Avg (non-participants): 7.2000 Views since voting: 4188 Views during voting: 260 Votes: 103 Comments: 13 Favorites: 0
Great photo, congratulations on the ribbon. Thank you so much for the tutorial, it's really interesting. I'd like to try to make this some other day ;-)
Last Hurrah
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