"Eye of the Vortex"

This is a new shot using incense smoke and will hopefully raise the

standard of my smoke folder.

I am intrigued by the colors in the incense smoke as opposed to

cigarette smoke. Apparently the incense has more oils and resins

which add the additional colors to the spectrum recorded from the smoke.

Although the colors have been "pushed" a bit, the colors are visible

to the naked eye while making the exposures.

As always, please let me know what you think. Thank You!

The set-up, from top to bottom: Incense cone, Small pile of salt to dissipate heat from the incense, Acrylic cutting board, Alien Bees B-800 strobe with barn-doors set to a rectangle supporting the above elements.

There is a black cloth backdrop about 10 feet behind the incense. The object is to get the smoke so much brighter than the background that only the smoke shows. The "barn-doors" on the strobe provide what is esentially a black box to direct nearly all the light up through the smoke while limiting spill light on the background.

I hope this helps to clarify the lighting used.