Dust Explosions
A lot of people, i assume, know of the trick where you can get a nice fire ball from igniting a cloud of non-dairy creamer. Apparently has to do with the emulsifying qualities of the powder with air, or something…Alton Brown can explain it better. Anyhoo, earlier this month, I had an AP assignment special for the Atlanta Journal-Constitutional [story] that featured Michigan Aerospace Professor Bill Kauffman.
He’s a big expert on the science of dust explosions, which apparently frequently blows up grain elevators (see photo in picture) or saw mills.
My only option for the story was to get something interesting in the form of a portrait for Kauffman. His office in the Aerospace building on campus didn’t help with the story as it was covered floor to ceiling with airplane pictures and such. This story doesn’t mention aviation at all. So, we found a room where there wasn’t much clutter, and i liked the scribbles on the chalk board, which made a nice clean “academic” background. He was a pretty photogenic old fella so i knew I should just make him pop. With the room’s florescent lights off and all the blinds drawn, i could control the lighting with two strobes.
He thankfully had a framed picture of a dust explosion accident, and that worked okay to relate his mug to the topic of the story. He also had a bag of saw dust, which looked like rabbit food. He didn’t mind making a mess dumping all of it on the table, so that helped add even more context. The good thing that made this shoot work was definitely Kauffman’s cooperation. He was a good sport with trying out different poses and performed to his abilities.