FIVE SECOND RULE
TO OUR FALLEN HEROES
This image is part of a playful series honoring the quiet tragedies of everyday life—the ones that don’t make headlines but absolutely ruin your day.
Like dropping your very last french fry.
The golden one. The perfect one. The one with the crispy edge and just enough ketchup to make it transcendent. And then—gravity. Treasonous, cruel gravity.
Do you leave it behind and mourn the moment?
Or do you channel your inner trash panda, brush it off, and go for it?
Five Second Rule is my creative ode to the absurd. A conceptual exploration of storytelling, styling, and just how far I can take a single visual gag before it becomes weirdly beautiful.
Admittedly, my first pass at this classic moment was fully literal: a lone crinkle fry, perfectly golden, perfectly salted, with a magical bloop of ketchup—dropped straight into a bed of grass.
SKETCH IT
Safe. Expected. And honestly? Kinda boring.
It lacked flair. Art. Poetry.
BEFORE YOU WRECK IT
The second pass? That’s where it clicked. I dissected every element the fry had come into contact with and arranged them with intention—front and center, against a sun-soaked background of yolk and buttercup yellow.
Suddenly it wasn’t just a fry—it was a moment.
More editorial. More symbolic. More absurd.
PROCREATE TIME LAPSE
You can actually watch the idea evolve and suddenly come to life with the final concept
BEHIND THE SCENES
One thing I knew from the start: this fry had to live in the sun.
Not just because it’s a fallen snack—but because it’s a summer moment. No school. No bullies. Just grass, snacks, and fleeting perfection. The kind of indulgence you only second-guess once it hits the ground.
The lighting? Simple setup, maximum mood.
Two Godox AD600 battery strobes—no cords, no fuss. One bounced off my tall white ceiling to flood the scene with that soft, airy glow. Basically, a DIY big-sky simulator.
The second light did the precision work—our faux sun—angled directly at the set to carve out blades of grass, glossy ketchup, and crispy fry edges. That’s where the sharp shadows live. The drama. Shift the angle slightly, and the whole vibe changes.
I shot tethered into CaptureOne so I could adjust in real time—on the monitor or straight from my iPad. Every blade, bug, and breadcrumb got a second look.
Because the only thing worse than a dropped fry... is almost nailing the shot.
STILL LIFE OR STILL EDIBLE?
This shot walks a very weird, very intentional line—somewhere between high-concept still life and snack-time tragedy.
The composition is clean. The colors? Summer-fresh. The styling? Equal parts indulgent and unhinged.
The fry rests in a carefully controlled micro-scene: wildflowers, blades of grass, dustings of sand, and that perfect dollop of ketchup. It’s styled to feel accidental, but curated to the pixel.
✨ Styling by the brilliant Tami Hardeman (@runwithtweezers), whose ability to walk the line with me between delicious and absurd was unmatched.
The result is equal parts craveable and questionable.
Is it beautiful?
Is it food?
Is it garbage?
That tension is what I love most. It’s a love letter to the visual power of suggestion—and a celebration of going way too far with a single idea.
And maybe... it’s also an invitation to pick it up and eat it anyway.