I guess this section was aimed more for having fun and taking nice photos, because quite frankly skill isn't involved.
Fifty homebrand matchboxes, left over from a statistics project. What to do? I guess I found that wasting 2500 matches isn't as hard as it sounds. Oh, and I have to say that homebrand matches are easy to strike, stay alit well, and are DIRT CHEAP so thanks Mr. CEO of Woolworths Ltd, you have done a great job!
We weren't going to waste time doing some pretty "align matches one by one in a unique pattern and light" thing, so it was decided the best way to get some fire going was to light the entire box. With the aid of some handy sparklers, this was a breeze.
When the heads of the fifty matches catch alight, there is a loud OOMPH noise as the beautiful flame whips out at the camera.
So that got pretty boring after a bit, so we saved the last six boxes to make some pretty pictures.
Method:
1. Stick a sparkler through the matchbox
2. Light end of sparkler and set up camera.
3. Wait for the action!
Here's the box of matches just as the heads are about to catch alight.
And then WHOOMPH! The top of the matchbox is typically blown off by the sudden burst of fire.
The "whoomph" lasts about a fraction of a second, then turns into a small flame that quickly consumes the rest of the matches/matchbox.
Actually, I kinda cheated on the photo, this was later at night, it just looked like it would fit a sequence, so I used it.
The Penguin's Lab mascot having a firey night.
"Come quick! The house is on fire!"
I need a bigger penguin...
Remember Mr. Giraffe from the high speed photography pictures?
Actually its starting to look more like a bonfire than anything..
Mr. Giraffe tries a daring stunt... using his antennae (or whatever the hell they are) to support the matchbox, he gets ready as the fuse is lit... Mr. Penguin watches in suspense.
Unfortunately I timed the shot wrong and this is before the box lit up. Those are sparks from the sparkler.
This time I got it. Fires blaze out from Mr. Giraffe's head (No he didn't get burnt, the matchbox is vertical, only the top side lights).
The matches that the giraffe is standing on are the leftovers of an unsuccessful shot that saturated the cam.
Seeing as the matches themselves started to get a bit repetitive, I loaded this box up with commercial gunpowder pellets (with the matches still inside, I just jammed however many pellets I could inside the space remaining). I also managed to get a bumblebee firecracker inside the box.
Clearly seen are the pellets blasting away from the box, narrowly missing Mr. Penguin standing in his usual position. The explosion directed to the top left corner is that of the bumblebee, wasn't quite as bright as I was expecting.
