It’s sad these days that “The War Against Christmas” is a phrase that gets tossed about as a vehicle for cultural tension and very un-merry sentiment. Since it doesn’t matter what you believe or how you celebrate it, we can all agree on a few things: namely hating mall trips, annoying music, and how awesome anything exploding is. This flickr set by Alan Sailer is the perfect holiday pick me up, and he’s taking the phrase back. Words cannot describe how excellent this photo set is, so feel free to ignore me and hit the jump. Colors, lighting, bulbs and their fillings, and even the projectiles are painstakingly chosen for striking effect. (That’s the only pun- my Christmas gift to you.) Since the holiday season is all about being joyful and celebrating family and friends, let’s drop all the sentimental crap just for a few moments and revel in lovely delicate things being shattered into microscopic pieces by powerful projectile weapons. Heartwarming!
The War Against Christmas – How Much Holiday Spirit Can You Vaporize In One Shot?
In addition to the fact that the photos are undeniably bad ass, Sailer’s background information and conversational chatter on each photograph is really interesting. Outside of the intense set up and clean ups, camera settings, trial and error, equipment, and safety precautions he needs to observe, he’s thought up some wacky things to stuff into old garage sale ornaments. Sand, Play Doh, cake sprinkles, mineral oil, gelatin, dyes, and expired sour cream (the struggle and dedication of a true artist!) are some of the ways he creates vibrant explosions of color and texture. Enjoy this sampling of pretty shiny things going boom, and make sure you check out the rest of the set here. Hopefully this is enough of a Christmas stress release for you. We don’t want to hear about any of our readers getting egg nogged and emptying a clip into the yule tree.
Unless you take pictures.
