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For image licensing or print inquiries contact James Markus at jmarkus@photomatter.com

For image licensing or print inquiries contact James Markus at jmarkus@photomatter.com
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Views

3699

Likes

Awards

Honorable Mention in Macro Inanimate Photo Contest
Runner Up in Macro Captures Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Anything Fire Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Lapse Of Time Photo Contest
Contest Finalist in Experimental Photography Project
  View more
Peer Award
Outstanding Creativity
nikkicrouse paullanderos KayDeCay afonsochabyrosa LouLousVisions rosaleerupp Serg60 +38
Top Choice
Mollyrmay belindafranks rebeccamayes ninakozoriz Rosiegirl88 Eugeny Murgatroyd +30
Absolute Masterpiece
enydstyle MelissaMoua cisco66 justinekenneth stevecarson ilyongilyongilyong saradierickx +19
Magnificent Capture
alewis831 Bio-Informagic littlejules Manni baybig dcnick96 photosdude +15
Superb Composition
htutaungkhant alaroque Jake7 PhilCollins kasper Sue67 melissaknapp +4
Superior Skill
KSRPhotography SlynnU49 AnjelEyePhotos rogerkasak marcobertazzoni Dawgbyte Dacemac
All Star
CJPark4991 Hsharpe1 artgio James-Evans estercastillo08 HermannKlecker
Genius
Frank1390 OBRonTyan
Virtuoso
UpuliWi michelbeaulne

Emotions

Impressed
Hoggel deekaycee octavianteodorescu beingsalmankhan vladiart James-Evans rueysung +28
Upset
elenakuznetsova_7374

Top Ranks

Fire Galore Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Fire Galore Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Macro Vibes Photo ContestTop 20 rank
Macro Inanimate Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Macro Inanimate Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Tech Wonders Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Tech Wonders Photo ContestTop 30 rank week 2
Tech Wonders Photo ContestTop 20 rank week 1
Creative Boundaries Photo ContestTop 30 rank week 1
Color Explorer Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Color Explorer Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Macro Captures Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Macro Captures Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
photographyawards2020Top 10 rank
photographyawards2020Top 10 rank week 2
photographyawards2020Top 10 rank week 1
The Human Touch Photo ContestTop 10 rank
The Human Touch Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Moving Fast And Quick Photo ContestTop 10 rank
Moving Fast And Quick Photo ContestTop 10 rank week 1
Movement Photo Contest Speed SeriesTop 20 rank
Lapse Of Time Photo ContestTop 30 rank
Lapse Of Time Photo ContestTop 30 rank week 1
Experimental Photography ProjectTop 10 rank
Showing Movement Photo ContestTop 20 rank
Experimental Photo ContestTop 20 rank
Fast Moving Photo ContestTop 30 rank
Fast Moving Photo ContestTop 30 rank week 1

Categories


7 Comments |
deekaycee Ultimate
 
deekaycee February 02, 2021
Love this photo! Congrats on being named a photo contest runner-up!
beingsalmankhan
 
beingsalmankhan February 02, 2021
Congratulations!
DAsEye Platinum
 
DAsEye March 06, 2021
Great shot
ClaritaBethCanlasMiller PRO+
 
ClaritaBethCanlasMiller June 19, 2022
Congratulations and very cool shot
Jdean80 Platinum
 
Jdean80 June 22, 2022
Congratulations on your honorary mention in the inanimate macro contest!! What a creative shot!! Nicely done!
LindieK PRO
 
LindieK July 05, 2022
Great macro !
melissajackson_0028 PRO+
 
melissajackson_0028 February 20, 2023
Very very cool shot!!
See all

Behind The Lens

Location

In my Studio on a product light table I built.

Time

3:00:25 PM

Lighting

Single main left, and a reflector front right.

Equipment

Nikon D300 with a Nikkor 60mm f2.8 afd micro lens - 90mm effective focal length due to crop sensor. Alien Bee 800 with a softbox, I either used a popup white reflector, or a piece of white foam core board. (can't remember)

Inspiration

My youngest son was at that playing with matches stage, and I needed extra hands to capture this image. I fixed the kitchen match box to the table, and had him strike matches slowly for about two hours straight. He needed to freeze the match head on the striker as soon as ignition began so that the match stick would be sharp. I think it satisfied his need to play with matches. :-) I know it got me the image I was aiming to capture.

Editing

I imaged from a raw file to an adobe 98 color space jpg. I applied a global black point adjustment on the background, and painted it in with the history brush. (This is in Photoshop) I think I tried to increase the highlight detail a bit.

In my camera bag

Cameras, lenses, filters, adapters, popup reflectors, batteries, flash (if I'm not using studio strobes), triggers, receivers, extra disks etc

Feedback

Plan it out. What DOF would work best? What shutter speed, and/or f-stop would be best? Put your camera in manual mode! What degrees kelvin would be the best white balance? Shoot a bunch of test shots. Once you have the technical aspects dialed in work on your composition with even more test shots. Be brutal in your image culling process.

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