Have you ever found yourself staring into a camp fire or relaxing as you watch the flames in a fireplace?

Do you find fire fascinating as shapes manifest within the flames? Fire is a fascinating and a beautiful thing, but as dangerous as it is beautiful…I recently had the pleasure of photographing FIRE.

Fire is something that is difficult to contain and just as hard to harness it’s movements. I thought I would attempt to capture the beauty, the fury, the danger, the shapes, and the fluid movement of fire in photography. Shooting fire is exciting, and exhilarating. I never realized how fabulous the images would be. I knew the beauty, and color would be a great capture but when I downloaded the photos and began to really look at the fire in the photos, I found something more…

In fire, there seems to be a life all it’s own. As the flames dance and weave, it creates some of the most amazing sights.

In Paranormal Research, thanks to The Atlantic Paranormal Society (T.A.P.S.), the term ‘matrixing’ is used. Matrixing basically is a word used to describe the finding of shapes, figures, and faces in confusing things we see. Our minds, apparently do this automatically. Our mind tries to make sense of confusing patterned sights. It makes confusion into something familiar.

We all have done this, with clouds, with shadows in the trees, with leaves in the trees, with reflections on glass, etc. There are many claims of seeing the Virgin Mary or even Jesus in many unusual places such as on toast, in the water discolored parts of a stucco building, or the calcium build up on a bathroom window. I am not saying that all of these instances were matrixing, but some may be our minds looking for the supernatural in a totally natural and confusing sight.

Our minds NEED to make sense of it!

In some of the photos I have shot, there is so much confusion in the flames, it is difficult to make sense of it all at one time. But once I began to break the picture into sections and look at the flames, many different shapes began to form. But then there are those ones...the shots that maybe my mind made sense of something confusing, but when shown to others, it is an unmistakable shape. These are the shots that something hits you right away and your mind doesn’t need to study it to make sense of it and begin to create the shapes and faces.

These are the shots I want to share with you now.

I shot photos of fire at night, during a bon fire, and of fires purposely set, during the day, for a demonstration of ‘how to use a fire extinguisher’ and within a BBQ. The fires I photographed were contained and not shot of any distress to any people or property.

The difference in the type of fire plays a big role in the results you get in the shapes and the ferocity of the fire.

The bon fire shots involved different types of materials, which produced bright, and variable flame types. The demonstration for the fire extinguisher fires were purely of flames that were accelerated by gasoline, which made extremely volatile flames. This produced the most ferocious fires, where the flames actually became strings and shapes.

The most interesting captures were, oddly enough, in the daytime shots. The bon fire shots were taken at night, giving a great black background offsetting the fire tremendously.

I am including 4 varied photos: #1 from the demonstration, appears to be an ‘alien’ in the fire, #2, I call the “Gremlin” in the fire, #3 appears to be 2 demons rising from the fire, (the one on the left looks strangely like the “gremlin” in photo #2), and #4 is an image in the fire of charcoal and paper in the BBQ that was taken right after I unwittingly began to call out to the spirit in the fire.

    Photo #1, Gasoline Fire Demonstration                             Photo #2, Gasoline Fire Demonstration

    “Alien in the Fire”                                                               “Gremlin in the Fire”

Photo #3, Night Time Bon fire Photo                                    #4, BBQ Fire (Charcoal & Paper)

2 Demon’s                                                                             Reaction of fire after ‘calling out’

All four of the photos provided are totally un-retouched. I did nothing to enhance the visibility of the contents. What you see is what I captured, only I have cropped out the interesting parts.

Is there life in fire? Is there manifestation in fire? Is fire a conduit for something to be visible that would not normally be seen? These images have to make you wonder, I know I did.  So this is an area I have chosen to research...