Setting my cat on fire!
Today, I set my cat on fire.



Okay, it wasn't REALLY my cat, just a statue.
And I didn't really set it on fire, just made it look that way.

No editing was done to this image, other then just adding my border/signature.
How it looks is how I shot it.


The idea for this was random. I didn't plan to use fire at all at first.
That part came about while I was in the middle of the shoot.

While looking around, trying to think of a "photo of the day" for today,
I noticed the holes/grids on the stands of my computer table.


And thought that if I was to shine light through them,
it'd make an interesting pattern on the wall.

So I grabbed a flashlight and used a box and my shoe (hah) to elevate it to the position I wanted:


For a "subject", I grabbed my cat statue.
Placed him on another box, and covered that box with a black shirt.
Then lined my flashlight beam up to where I wanted it behind the statue:


So now I had a nice background light pattern, and a subject to sit in front of it.
Now I needed to light that subject.

I attached my speedlight onto a small tripod,
and wrapped the tripod around a door handle,
pointing it toward the cat.


I also attached a flag (light blocker) onto the side of the speedlight
to block the light from hitting the wall and messing with my light pattern.


Then I set my tripod up, put my camera on it,
dialed in my light pattern to match the light illuminating the statue,
so it all played together nicely, and snapped away.


This is the end result I was shooting for:


Along the way, just on a whim, I grabbed a lighter.

My goal wasn't to add flames to the photo..
just to add some extra (maybe interesting) light onto the statue.

I got this while waving the lighter around during the 10 sec exposure:


Whoa! Cool!

I tried again:


Fun!

Then I tried with the lighter behind the statues wings,
which produced the first image in this post.

Fun little experiment.
Shows to always keep your eyes open for interesting ideas
(like the light pattern through the holes), and also try new things.
Never know what you'll come up with! =D