While photographer Thomas Herbrich is not a smoker, he said he has always been fascinated by cigarette smoke. He was surprised by how quickly it moves, saying it's easier to photograph a racing car. Smoke moves too quickly for conventional flash equipment. (Photo by Thomas Herbrich)

Only a few milliseconds pass between the recognition of the subject, and taking the shot. Because of this, Herbrich used a high-speed flash with a flash duration of 1/10,000 second, and took more than 100,000 digital photos over the course of three months. (Photo by Thomas Herbrich)

Only 20 out of 100,000 photos made the final cut, as the moment the shutter released wasn't at exactly the right millisecond, or because other interfering smoke elements were in the photo. (Photo by Thomas Herbrich)

These photographs have been featured in arts fairs such as ART Cologne, ART Karlsruhe, Art Fair Hong Kong, as well as several exhibitions. (Photo by Thomas Herbrich)

To capture these photos, Herbrich attached a burning cigarette to a tripod in his studio with a black background. He had his brother hold the high-speed flash and manually focused his camera. The field of smoke is no bigger than 10 inches in diameter. (Photo by Thomas Herbrich)

Herbrich said the problem is “When I see a nice smoke form, my eye has to tell my brain, may brain tells my thumb, and the thumb presses the button – the camera makes click-clack ... and all this requires some milliseconds, which is a long time for catching smoke. It is really superfast”. (Photo by Thomas Herbrich)

Herbrich has to wait for the air to be totally “quiet”, meaning no motion as to disturb the smoke flow. This is why he is only able to shoot 15 to 20 cigarettes per day. He used 600 cigarettes in total. (Photo by Thomas Herbrich)

Herbrich tried many different techniques, such as cooling the smoke, which makes the flow slower, but said the results were poor. His motto is “surprise yourself, and your audience” and said it is essential to surprise yourself first. (Photo by Thomas Herbrich)