Fire, confined and controlled, is the friend of mankind. The use of fire can even be said to define us. Other animals are organized, communicate, and use tools. No other animal on the earth makes purposeful use of fire - only man.

Wildfire, raging and uncontroled, is one of the most destructive forces on the planet. But, even then, fire is magnificent and awe-inspiring.

Fire affects all of our senses and engages our emotions. Visually, fire has color, motion, and constantly changing shape and form. The sounds of fire can range from the quiet sizzle and pop of wood changing composition in the heat of the flames to the full-fledged raging roar of a building or forest burning up. Our noses are assailed by various smoky odors and fragrences released from the burning fuel. We feel the heat of the flames warming our toes as we sit around a winter campfire or we flee from the flashing pain instilled by an out of control blaze.

I use photography because of its ability to capture slices of time. When we watch a fire with out eyes the flames are constantly in motion, presenting a changing movie to our senses. The fraction of a second click of a shutter stops this changing display to capture visions we can experience in no other way. 

I look at the raw fire photos on my computer screen and look for areas that are filled with interesting shapes and contrast. I overlay this area with a mask in the shape of a 36 degree, right triangle and copy it. I paste this image to a blank page and copy and mirror-image it. I push the two triangles together to form a wedge and remove any trace of a line where the two of the triangles join. I then make four copies of the original wedge and rotate them 72 and 144 degrees and push the wedges together to form a pentagonal shape. I remove traces of lines where the wedges join and have a pentakal.

I join twelve copies of the flaming pentakal together at the edges to form a dodecahedron.

Decisions and Naming the images

At any point during the image making process I may decide that I don't have a keeper. At that point I delete the image and start over again. What do I look for in a keeper? Essentially, I look for an interesting design; preferably I look for a creature of some sort to be formed where the wedges join together. Remember, because we are mirror-imaging photos here we are creating bilateral symmetry, the chances of a creature being revealed are actually quite high. 

When you are looking at the gallery photos you will notice the image title reflects the creature or design form that I saw when creating the image. Since we are all individuals, you may see something else entirely. Feel free to write me with any contrasting opinions.
 

Jester	Taurus	Zombie