Smoke Anyone?

Smoke. Smoke is as seductive as the fire that comes behind it. But smoke is something else. It has a dance like fire, but it goes farther than fire. It warns you that fire is right on it's tail. So its dance is different.

I've taken the pleasure of photographing smoke lately and seem to have gotten the knack for it. The photographs shown and all that have and will be taken of smoke are not about the smoke itself. That is too boring really. It is the image of what it creates that captures the imagination is what I'm after. Take a look the first image. It almost looks plain but if you think of the complex shapes that are involved you'll start to see a different kind of shape, almost a ghostly shape at that. To me it looks like the bottom of the torso of a young woman in her ghostly form rising from someplace unknown to us. You can't see her face, bust, or shoulders, but her arm is defined and even the whisp of smoke at the central region seems to define where the hip might be. Her arm is slightly bent up as it seems she is starting to reach up. The brains power of imagination is great, isn't it?
Capturing the smoke can be a daunting task. For one a room with still air is hard to come by even with vents closed any movement from you even the heat of a flash set close has an impact on the smoke. If the room is too hot the smoke will have a short straight line up before it bunches into a cloud. Even your breath has an impact. Keep in mind that too much smoke will not look good at all. It will begin to look just like smoke. yuck! Focusing is a tad tricky but having measured the distance as close to center of the column and setting a small aperture will yielded great results. Having a black background helped as well. I had set the flash close enough to the incense but not so that the remnants would fall onto it.

The photo above is very interesting because the smoke went from a single round column into a flat one and then all the sudden it wafted, I saw the dip in the smoke and hit the shutter button. The flat column suddenly just curled itself under as the shutter opened.

I got myself a seat and diligently watched the smoke dance around. There were certain tiny eddy's in the air that would make it jump, twist, bow, and reveal other weird shapes that made the smoke column look like something else. If the air is still enough you can also manipulate these eddy's by putting something beside the column and the taking it away in such a manner that not much air is moving. So a light touch was essential when performing this trick.
In the photo above the smoke was dead straight up when I felt a hair move on my neck. Just as it did the column kind of wavered, straightened up and then poof like a mini tornado, click went the shutter and viola! I was happy when I saw that on the back of the viewfinder.
These photos and a few others in the series are on my main website just go to the people, places, and things then look at the bottom for the link. Ethereal Vapor is what I have called the series (thanks to a few friends for the ideas).

Please feel free to comment, yell, scream, complain, its all good....just leave a comment....below...Click on the word "comments" below....
Thanks and peace,
Brian