Primordial

From Photo of the day (2009)

This is another DP Challenge entry - its snowing again so I went with a "studio" photo for today. The challenge was to take a photo where the light source was your main subject. I was originally thinking matches or somehow getting the tungsten glow in a light bulb, but had an epiphany the other day that glow sticks could be a lot of fun - especially when you ignore the warning "do not break open plastic tube". The stuff is non-toxic but there is another glass tube within it, and really they just don't want you to cut yourself or stain your clothes. I bought three larger sticks, two yellow and one green and started with one of the yellows. I cut it open and tried pouring it into a bowl, but there isnt really much in there and the glass gets in the way. I managed to get most of it out took a few pics and then opened the green one and dumped it around the edges (this is one of those shots). Oh, and this is all set up in my bathroom with the lights out. I had a tripod as the shutter speed was about half a second and my hands were more than full. I did some more with the extra yellow stick but this was the best shot. I played in Photoshop with this one to increase contrast (in an adjustment layer) to bring out the swirls in the goo, and then sharpened with unsharpmask. Oh and I cropped it too. Fun stuff!