The Poetry of Light and Motion

Photographer David Moenkhaus captures two opposing forces of nature — ice and fire — through meticulous experimentation with light and motion. Fly by Night, from his ongoing Fiori Congelati (Frozen Flowers) series, freezes time in more ways than one: delicate blooms encased in ice, illuminated with hand-painted light, evoke the elegance of classical still life through a modern lens. In contrast, Ignition 487 explodes with raw energy, as firecrackers erupt into color, smoke, and sparks — a fleeting moment caught in crisp, precise motion. Together, these images reveal Moenkhaus’s mastery of patience, timing, and controlled chaos.

Fly by Night

Fly by Night is one of approximately 25 images from my Fiori Congelati series. After visiting Italy recently and seeing how the great masters depicted flowers so beautifully, I wanted to photograph them but in a more painterly way. As the great photographer Ernst Haas said, “Less prose, more poetry.”

I had hiked through a local natural area after an ice storm and was struck by the beauty of tree branches and leaves encased in clear ice. It inspired me to experiment with freezing different kinds of flowers in the warm studio in an old baking pan that was black after over 20 years of use in our kitchen. The black pan provided the perfect background for the flowers and made the air bubbles around each one look like star fields.

I used my Fuji GFK 50s camera with a Canon EF 100 mm f 2.8 USM lens — one of my favorites for macro work. For lighting on this project, I wanted to keep it simple, so I used a small LED penlight. I’d open the shutter with a cable release, then move the penlight over the frozen flowers during a 3-10 second exposure — essentially painting with light. Using the electronic shutter on the GFX with the cable release and setting the lens at F11 allowed for optimum sharpness.

Ignition 487

I’ve always wanted to photograph a pack of firecrackers going off, and I wanted to shoot them with my Fuji GFX, but I knew I needed more frames per second to capture the brief event fully. So, I used Canon 1dX MKII instead, with its top high frame rate of 14 frames per second.

The image Ignition 487 was lit with Broncolor strobes placed on each side but slightly behind the firecrackers so that the smoke would be backlit and side lit. I also used the Canon 100 mm f 2.8 USM macro lens because it’s razor sharp and kept me at a safe distance from the sparks and fire.

While editing, I was pleased with how many good images there were, mostly because I photographed them at 14 fps. I like to have a general lighting plan for each shoot, but I always leave room for experimentation and happy accidents. Typically, I employ many types of lighting in my work, from bounce cards and available light to continuous sources and strobe lights. But I find that the more flexible I am with the camera and lighting choices, the more options I have later in post-production. These images illustrate that it’s not the type of light I use, but how I use it that makes the difference between a good photograph and a great Photograph.

About the Photographer

David Moenkhaus is an award-winning photographer whose work explores the interplay of light, texture, and time. His approach blends technical precision with painterly sensitivity, creating images that evoke emotion as much as admiration. Whether capturing fleeting motion or quiet stillness, Moenkhaus continues to push the boundaries of photographic storytelling through experimentation and mastery of his craft.

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Fly by Night & Ignition 487 – David Moenkhaus