Whoo-Hoo, Y’all! It’s week 7 of the Winter Photo Challenge. Light Painting. I was baffled at how this works….who am I kidding, I still can’t quite wrap my head around it. It is so totally awesome! I was a little intimidated to give it a try, honestly. But I have a good husband who doesn’t allow me to back down from a challenge….especially one that is not going to hurt me. So I purchased a few sparklers and a set of glow stick bracelets. And then when I had time and access to the camera, it was raining. 🙁 I wasn’t sure what I should write or draw and it would appear that my colleagues in the challenge are mostly stumped, too, although there are a couple posted that are just ingenious (yes, I’m a little jealous of the creativity). I started with the glow stick bracelets but they were too dull. I had to go over each letter or design too much to make it show up. Since it is nearly impossible to exactly trace what you can no longer see, this turned out looking like a Blue Rabbid Easter Bunny floating next to the Christmas Tree:
Oh, well.
I was hesitant to do so, but called my husband into the room with me, and gingerly lit a sparkler (eek). My heart was racing to have the sparkler lit in the house next to a live Christmas Tree. But the sparks don’t go too far and I would be between the fire and the tree. Plus, my husband was there to help if any problems arose. I was very pleased with the visual results. It showed up very nicely but I couldn’t seem to stay in frame or write legibly. ***NOTE: PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. It was very dangerous and could have had very bad results (worst case scenario: Funerals for Christmas type dangerous).
Here are a few samples:
We thought this one looked like a sleigh, especially when turned the other way
Whaddaya think? Christmas Card material?
But my favorite, and my submission for this weeks Winter Photo Challenge, is:
So far, my two favorite techniques I’ve picked up from this challenge are Prisming and Light Painting because they add an additional fun, artistic, and creative side to photography. I’ve said that in order to be a great photographer one must REALLY get light. These particular techniques allow the photographer to tell light (to some degree) exactly how it will be allowed to affect the image being created! I find that to be incredibly empowering. They are clearly techniques that will take time to perfect but at least that time will be spent having fun and creating amazing photos.
~Katie