Today a quick tip that might safe your life one day.
Over the years we’ve done some crazy stuff, however I (and my team) were always aware of the dangers when we shoot something that is considered dangerous. Now I see a lot of shoots online with water and for example baking flour (which I did for Kelbytraining in my class the art of dance). However I also know that a lot of people don’t really know what they are doing and how dangerous shoots like these can be. So today a few tips to make sure (although there is never a sure in these kind of cases) you don’t kill yourself or your model 😀

 

1. Wide open spaces
As soon as you start throwing stuff there is a huge chance of static electricity.
This is actually a quote from wisegeek.org but it tells you everything you need to know.

 

“Air Dispersal Requirement

Flour is not prone to explode all on its own — individual grains must be separated and exposed to oxygen for there to be any risk. When stored in densely packed bags or containers, the chances of fire are quite low. Explosion becomes likely only when individual particles are suspended in the air, usually in the form of a dust cloud. Dust clouds in confined spaces both allow the starch molecules ample access to oxygen, and prevent escape — under these conditions, any heat or heat source can set the sugar molecules ablaze. In large quantities, this has a very explosive effect, and can be deadly.”

 

Now if you really want to do a flour shoot (and who doesn’t let’s be honest), make sure that you do the shoot in a wide open space, so you have a lot of room, also make sure that your strobes are far away from the area where the dust is in the air. And even then always realize that you DO take a risk, but if you’re smart about it you actually do limit the risk a lot but please don’t put strobes in the area where there is a lot of dust, because that “boys and girls” is really asking for trouble, especially in a small room.

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