A Gentle Smoke.

I've been waiting for your entries this week! A custom-designed subject for you!
This is very cool - love the pipe, red ember, and the wafting smoke. The burnt match adds a lot - not sure about the new one, though.
The little edge of the table or runner in the lower left is a minor distraction.
Very fine image!
Sandy

The smoke is very intriguing, and I like the interesting holder (?) the pipe is resting on. Have to go with Carolyn on the new match.

When I read Sandy's post I thought, there is someone who has never smoked a pipe. They are always going out unless and often even if, you puff on them regularly. I thought I'd put an unstruck match as authenticity. After reading both comments I looked and think I'll take it out and post an altered view.

Thanks for pointers.

The tray the pipe is resting on is a very old cast iron ashtray I bought years ago in an antique shop in Baltimore. It has a heavily embossed portrate of an old man smoking a pipe and I've always thought it was more a pipe ash tray than otherwise.

I recently bought the old pipe on Ebay because it has deep teeth marks on the mouthpiece and thought it would make a still life combination someday. I'm now shopping for some old tobacco tins or humidor to go with this stuff. I probably blew my masterpiece with this early exposure

By the way this was shot with an Olympus E-5 w/ 12-60mm f2 lens @ 30mmFL, 1/8 sec @ f5 and -1.7 exposure comp, ISO 400 (a goof) tripod and one 5200 k umbrella lamp

Charlie: Way cool and the repost is even better. Very well done.>=))>

A very nice composition, well conceptualized. I agree that the second post is the best, the eye is not diverted from the main subject.

Well, I don't agree with much of anything here. So, what's new, I guess. The pipe looks a little weird to me as if it was subject to telephoto compression. I would rather see the front of the plate sharp than the rear. You ruined the photo for me by removing the match because you lost the triangle formed by the red ember, the red match head and the stem of the pipe. The red also complemented the green. But the smoke which is the theme here, is excellent in any case.

Well RL it is always the fact that you took your time to look and give me your feeling about my image. Problem is, I care about your opinion and you will probably be bored by other images trying to get your approval.

Sandy seems to think this challenge is one which I'm at advantage. You saw the Bill Fach shot which should win this challenge, hands down. Quite frankly it is even better than mine. Or yours.

Agreed.

I like the two match version best. This has a very warm, nostalgic feeling. Well done, Charlie.

Thanks, Mark. If nostalgic I'll assume you were a pipe smoker.

Another nice take on the smoke theme here, Charlie.......congrats on the EP / WP this week too.

Thank you, Paul.