Photo Competition 2020-01: Portraits by candlelight

Question

Theme

Inspired by the question, Is it practical to shoot portraits by only candlelight?, the theme of this contest is straight-forward: show us your best portraits that are lit only by candlelight.

Voting Rules

Vote up as many images as you like
Please, up votes only! Do NOT vote down your competitors! If you don't like an image, don't vote
Voting closes on January 29, 2020 at 12:00 AM UTC. The winner will be chosen based on votes at that time

Submission Rules

One photo submission per answer. Multiple entries are encouraged, but please don't spam answers. The aim is quality over quantity.
Post only photos taken by yourself or the person with you.
All entries should include a line of text with the location, subject, and date.
The submitted image must conform to this site's content license, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) with attribution required.
Do not use this as a forum for photo critique. Use chat instead, or ask a new question about your image.

Next Contest

Suggest a theme for the next contest. Leave a single comment below in the format,

Theme: <one sentence description>
Upvote the comment(s) with the theme you would like to see next time.

Good luck!

Theme suggestion credit goes to @mattdm, who apparently has been waiting patiently 9 years for this competition theme! =) — scottbb, Jan 14 '20 at 15:46
It’s effing depressing that this doesn’t have a single submission — OnBreak., Jan 21 '20 at 08:06
But not entirely surpising. The people I know who enjoy having their picture taken is nil and those who want it published a tiny fraction of that! Also there's a strong culture amongst enthusiasts that real photographers protect their "art" and their copyright. This makes the creative commons requirement at the least confusing and probably off putting. Personally, I'm heavily into a diy project at the minute and photography is low on the list. Dedicated sites are better suited to running competitions and as long as we have plenty of questions and answers here does that matter? — dmkonlinux, Jan 22 '20 at 19:25
@dmkonlinux I'm also deeply into a diy project at the moment, and haven't gotten around to setting up and staging a candle-lit portrait either. (Also, portraits aren't generally my bag; I'm more inclined to take more landscapes and astros). However, the fact that we're a Photography Q&A site, with very little encouragement to show off good photos (i.e., photo competitions), tends to reduce our credibility as a good photography community. That's really the goal of this fledgling photo competition. — scottbb, Jan 22 '20 at 19:59
Please don't be offended, I hate sounding negative when someone is making a positive contribution. I appreciate your efforts to promote community here and a photography site without photos is kind of ironic. — dmkonlinux, Jan 22 '20 at 20:52
@dmkonlinux No offense taken at all, believe me. I'm 98% on board with your comment; I just wanted to chime in on the attempt to attract interesting content. Now, whether it works or not, that's another beast altogether. Take care. =) — scottbb, Jan 22 '20 at 21:56
@dmkonlinux I'm intending on taking a candlelit portrait of my dog, cat1, cat2, or stuffed animal. Maybe myself. Maybe my daughter. There's nothing in the theme that says the portrait has to be of a person. — OnBreak., Jan 23 '20 at 19:38
You're right @Hueco of course, and well done LightBender for seeing that and getting the first entry in. I was being too literal, but I've also had the opposite problem elsewhere, where I've been so left field that people have a hard time relating my image to the brief (or maybe I just didn't read the brief properly). — dmkonlinux, Jan 24 '20 at 15:08
@dmkonlinux stack exchange could use more “from left field” . — OnBreak., Jan 24 '20 at 17:45
On second thought "Imperfectly Beautiful" might be a better way to word that. — LightBender, Jan 31 '20 at 12:20
@LightBender Interesting concept. What would you suggest as the slug / pitch line / description of that theme? — scottbb, Jan 31 '20 at 15:42
@scottbb "This theme challenges you to find beauty in unexpected places. Appreciating it not only in spite of imperfections, but perhaps even because of them." — LightBender, Jan 31 '20 at 15:56
@dmkonlinux and everyone else - If I can add my 5c, I think the photo competition is good, but feel it may not be very consistently structured and that may put people off? On the photo-competition tag, there's only ever been 4 posts, and a couple of them are set halfway through the month. I'd like to support a competition, but I'd want assurance that it's going to be consistent. Is it worth starting a question to get ideas from eveyrone here about the best way to structure a competition so that more people feel comfortable joining in? I'm happy to help? — AutoBaker, Jul 02 '20 at 10:46
@5Diraptor Your comment/question would make a great Meta question. Responses should be able to be voted on, and discusses, which is exactly what Meta is for. — scottbb, Jul 02 '20 at 16:44
@scottbb Here you go: https://photo.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/7053/should-photography-se-have-a-photo-competition-and-how-would-be-best-to-work-it - please feel free to comment or edit question :) — AutoBaker, Jul 06 '20 at 06:19

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 23 '20 at 03:58

Wielder of the Secret Fire

Nothing terribly exciting, I just felt like playing with my macro lens. Lit by 2 candles, one in frame, one out.

Camera:   Nikon D700
Lens:     Nikkor 105mm 2.8 Macro
Aperture: f/16
Shutter:  1/5s
ISO:      1600

Shot in RAW, converted to B&W in Photoshop with a little dodging for good measure.