It took me quite a while to decide what I wanted to shoot for my juxtaposition assignment. I didn’t know what do. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go political or pop culture or just funny. In the end I went with a mix of elements and politics. Nero fiddled while Rome burned and our politicians argue semantics while our country goes to hell in a handbasket.

Working on this assignment (exploring juxtaposition) helped me to improve my photography skills because these shots didn’t just happen. I had to think about what I wanted to shoot, I had to go buy sandcastle molds, fill them with water and freeze them, figure out how to keep them stable in the freezer so they didn’t tip over while they froze, I spent a considerable amount of time trying to decide when and where I’d shoot the photos without burning myself or burning the house down — VERY IMPORTANT —, I had to set up the shoot and take the photos. A lot of time and thinking about taking and making photos went into this assignment.

I used 91% rubbing alcohol (bought at Target) to light the fire. I poured the alcohol over the ice castle. At first I couldn’t get it to light and was stumped but then I took a chance and tried to light the pavement rather than the ice itself and the alcohol finally lit.

I cropped this in both iPhoto and Picasa and applied the soft focus effect in Picasa.

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