I know you’re not supposed to, but I like it! On a similar vein running with scissors never appealed to me. It seems to me that “all” the real photographers have a couple of shots that are in their portfolios. Maybe not, but I sure see alot of stained glass windows, broken down vehicles, bridges, train tracks, and matches. This was my attempt to be “real”
This was a really fun shot to create. I got a 8.5X11 sheet of paper and spray painted it black that was my backdrop. Using my tripod I got as close as I could focus. Then I set up my flash at 1/64 power with an envelope out of the junk mail pile so that the flame was shielded from the flash, but the stick was lit and there was a bounce from the counter top. This is a fairly tight crop of the picture but other than that this is SOOC.
I love the detail on the match-head and the corona at the edge of the flame. This picture is dedicated to my inner firebug. 
nice! guess I need to be daring before I can be ‘real’. Things really aren’t my forte but rather working with people….I gotta work on diversifying that!