I wanted to enter something, but I kept looking at the oxymorons throughout the week (the lists, not the people :) but I just couldn't figure out what to do with any of them. It also seemed like a large number on the lists just weren't what I considered an oxymoron. Like evaporated milk. Once I started thinking about it, I figured that yes, I guess it was. And on the last day I got the idea for this picture.
The pile of stuff is sugar. I didn't think flour would work, because I wanted some texture to it. The smoke is from an incense thingy hidden behind the sugar. (I put it on a piece of wax paper so that it didn't get on to the velvet. Though I started wondering whether my velvet could possibly catch on fire. I'd only done one other smoke picture, and my husband was helping at that point, so I had someone to pay attention to when it started burning low. Since I'd already burned the kitchen in our prior house (not due to photography, though), I figured it would be nice not to catch this house on fire. So I had a large cup of water ready, just in case. Luckily -- no fire.)
The lighting is natural lighting from a side window and the smoke is lit with a flash shot from the same side. (but pointed up at an angle so that it didn't add much, if any, light on the sugar. Ooooh! Now that I think about it, I wonder if salt would have worked better...?)
When I was finished, I thought the shot was interesting, though I've seen some beautiful smoke shots on DPC, and figured it couldn't stand up to those. But I was worried whether people would consider it an oxymoron. I showed my husband, he said "that's not an oxymoron." I told him to think about it, and he said that he guesses it could be one, but he thought I'd get hit for it. I thought the same thing, and waited for morning to see how badly I'd get hit.
I'm still waiting. I woke up to 6.4 this morning. It's now up to 6.8269 at 52 votes, and it keeps going up! I'm sure the bottom will drop out soon, but I thought I'd write this missive while it was so much fun to think about!
I think it's going to be a very long week! :D
You read all of this? Wow! I'm surprised! Rather long winded, wasn't it?
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