Odds and Ends:
A Collection of Unexpected Beauty
Odds and Ends:
A Collection of Unexpected Beauty
This section of Breaking Rules Photography brings together a diverse range of photographic explorations—unconventional subjects captured through light, texture, and motion. From fleeting moments to abstract compositions, these images challenge perception and reveal hidden intricacies in everyday objects.
In Lighting a Match, high-speed and macro photography freeze the instant a match ignites, showcasing billowing, flowing smoke in delicate, twisting patterns. Paper Under Macro transforms simple paper into sculptural forms, where creative lighting and extreme close-ups erase familiarity, turning edges and curves into abstract landscapes. Oil and Water explores the mesmerizing interactions of immiscible liquids, where controlled environments and vibrant lighting create dynamic, refracted patterns. Finally, The Silver Trumpet is a personal study of my vintage King Super 20 silver trumpet, where its reflective surface presents both a challenge and an opportunity to capture its timeless elegance through creative framing.
These images, each distinct in subject, share a common theme—finding art in the overlooked and capturing moments that exist for only an instant before disappearing.
Lighting a Match:
Capturing the Instant of Ignition
In this series, Breaking Rules Photography explores the split-second drama of a match igniting from a candle flame. Using high-speed and macro photography, I freeze the very moment the match bursts into life, pushing out billowing, flowing smoke that twists into intricate patterns. Each image captures the dynamic movement of smoke as it expands, curls, and disperses into the air—an ephemeral display of fire meeting oxygen. Through precise lighting and timing, these photographs reveal the unseen beauty of ignition, highlighting the interplay of flame, smoke, and motion in a fleeting but mesmerizing instant.
Paper Under Macro:
Abstract Forms in the Ordinary
In this series, Breaking Rules Photography reimagines the familiar through macro photography. By standing paper on its edge and using creative lighting, I reveal an entirely new perspective—one where delicate curves and flowing shapes emerge, transforming a simple material into an abstract landscape. The extreme close-up perspective erases any sense of scale, making the paper appear as something else entirely. Through the interplay of light and shadow, these images uncover hidden textures and sculptural forms, challenging our perception of the everyday.
Oil and Water:
The Art of Immiscible Liquids
In this macro photography series, Breaking Rules Photography explores the mesmerizing interaction between oil and water. Though they do not mix, in a controlled environment, these liquids create intricate, ever-changing patterns—suspended droplets, swirling boundaries, and dynamic distortions. With the addition of creative color lighting, the refraction through oil and water transforms the ordinary into a vibrant spectacle, amplifying depth, texture, and surreal color shifts. Each image captures the delicate tension between these immiscible elements, revealing an abstract world of fluid motion and luminous detail.
The Silver Trumpet:
A Reflection of Music and Light
This series in Breaking Rules Photography is a personal tribute to my beloved vintage King Super 20 silver trumpet. Though I can no longer play, the instrument continues to resonate—now as the subject of my photographic exploration. Whether captured in a dramatic standalone shot, elegantly placed over sheet music from Moulin Rouge, or resting on a vintage VA House oak rocking chair, this trumpet embodies both nostalgia and artistry. Its reflective surface presents a unique challenge, bending and distorting light in unexpected ways, making each composition a study in precision and creativity. Through this series, I explore the trumpet not just as an instrument, but as a symbol of music’s lasting presence and visual harmony.
Frozen Bubbles: A Winter’s Delicate Art
Blowing bubbles is a simple childhood joy, but when temperatures plunge well below freezing, something extraordinary happens—those delicate orbs transform into mesmerizing frozen sculptures. In the right conditions, a soap bubble will land on a surface of frozen snow, and instead of popping, it begins to crystallize before your eyes. Ice spreads across the surface in intricate patterns, forming delicate, feathery structures that seem almost otherworldly.
What makes these frozen bubbles truly fascinating is the unique interaction between the bubble solution and the freezing temperatures. The specific mixture of soap, water, and glycerin affects how the ice crystals form, creating one-of-a-kind patterns on each bubble. Some resemble delicate frost ferns, while others take on star-like structures.
Capturing this fleeting moment requires precision. Using a macro lens allows for an up-close view of the ice crystals as they expand, revealing textures invisible to the naked eye. Colored gels over flashes add another dimension, enhancing the frozen details with vibrant hues, turning the bubbles into miniature glowing worlds of ice. The challenge lies in timing—too much wind or the wrong angle can shatter the fragile sphere in an instant. But when everything aligns, the result is pure winter magic, frozen in time.
Fireworks: The Art of Light in Flight
Photographing fireworks is an irresistible blend of timing, patience, and creative experimentation—making it a perfect fit for Breaking Rules Photography. Rather than simply snapping fireworks as they burst in the sky, I approach them as opportunities for painterly, abstract, and unexpected visuals.
Using long exposure allows for capturing the full bloom of each explosion, and when paired with an interesting foreground—like silhouettes of buildings, trees, or people—it creates a sense of place and narrative. But it doesn’t stop there.
One of my favorite techniques is zooming in as the firework explodes, pulling the frame into the heart of the burst. The result? Intense, high-drama visuals that feel almost cosmic. Sometimes I take it further—turning the focus ring mid-exposure or zooming in and out during the shot. These methods create surreal, organic shapes that resemble jellyfish, electric flowers, or motion-filled brush strokes. It transforms fireworks from fleeting entertainment into dynamic, light-based art.
Like much of my work, this series is less about perfect realism and more about capturing energy, movement, and that beautiful tension between chaos and control.
