Interesting Photo of the Day: Sparks of Metalworking

Interesting Photos

If you’ve ever had a chance to work with metal, you might know how much work it really takes. You get a very small window for errors—precision is very important—and a distinct scent lingers for a while afterward that doesn’t waft away easily. But the best part of metalworking, at least for a photographer, has to be the sparks that metals create when they’re being ground. Photographer Emir Talundzic took the following image of his father grinding some metal and it’s absolutely mesmerizing:

“Magical Sparkles” by Emir Talundzic (Via Imgur. Click image to see full size.)

Talundzic shot the image on a Canon 5D Mark III with a Sigma 35mm f/1.4 lens at 1/640th of a second, f/1.4 and ISO 640. The shallow depth of field creates a beautiful blurry foreground that gives a sense of the human subject without distracting from where our eyes ought to be: the place where the magic is actually happening.

The beautiful and tiny sparkles are definitely the highlight of the image. It’s amazing how the photographer managed to capture them so sharply despite the shallow depth of field.

“The window was positioned perfectly so the light was coming down right over him. I had the lights off so we could have more focused lighting.”

If you think out of the box, it can even appear like he’s doing some kind of a magic trick. Let’s call it the magic of workmanship. Really a beautiful moment captured by the photographer.