This piece is inspired by the old Chinese saying “pure gold could hold up to the fire”, literally, which is a metaphor for the truth to withstand the test.

The beauty of photography is that inspiration can come from anything.

Photography
I placed black charcoal on a tin tray, while waiting for some of them burn red in the stove. Then I clamped them into the tray and placed the gold bracelets in place.

To keep the red coals burning red, I used a small electric fan and blew on the coals.

I opened the windows and doors to ensure air circulation in the studio to avoid accumulating too much carbon monoxide.

With the tripod propped up on the pallet and the lens facing down, I could still feel the red charcoal blaze, even though it was a 90mm lens.

The hardest part, however, was getting the proper exposure from the burning red charcoal, the shiny chain, and the dull black charcoal.

Shooting with film without preview, I chose to bracket the exposure, subtracting two stops for the dull black charcoal, exposing the red charcoal normally, and adding one stop for the shiny chain.

In the end, I found that these exposure techniques were quite accurate.

Through this work, I learned about exposure techniques and, of course, the contrast between light and shadow. In any case, the whole shooting process, from preparation to the result, was a lot of fun.

Isn’t photography just joyful?