No Lights, Camera, Action! Round 2!

Digital cameras are great things. There are so many creative ways to use them. One of these ways is using them for long exposures. Long exposure means the shutter is kept open longer than what it would normally stay open as compared to taking a regular picture (e.g. of your pet). This weekend a friend and I did our second photo shoot utilizing long exposures. We went to my parent's house, where there is little to no ambient light at night and took long exposure pictures using various light-props.

I will let the pictures do the talking. Below are some pictures, with captions explaining how they were taken. I recommend clicking the pictures for the larger version, as these small thumbnails do not do the pictures justice.




My friend stood in place as I used a blue LED light to draw wings and horns around him. Ideally it would have been red, but blue was easier.



This picture came from the idea of 'holding' a ball of light or energy, the way sorcerers or other magical beings do. I 'created' the ball of energy with a few of the light props and then exposed him with a spot light, otherwise you would only see the ball of light.



We set a time delay and ran into the woods to run around with lights. My friend drew the word 'HELP' with a red LED light. Without any other ambient light it is difficult to see the trees.



The blue LED spells the word 'HAUNT' and the white is supposed to be a ghost. It is not an easy task to 'draw' words in the air. You have to have good spacial awareness of where you have 'written'.



After a few successes with 'writing' in the air, I could not pass the chance to 'write' 'REDRUM' in the air, from the Stephen King novel The Shining. It spells 'murder' backwards, in case you did not get it.



A smiley face, well, because I wanted to draw a smiley face.



I brought some LED Christmas lights with me and after hooking up a few extension cords we were able to use the string of lights in the view of the camera. The word is 'rainbow', because there are many different colored lights.



I like skittles, so I tried to write a little more. The 'writing' took a little longer, that is why the image looks a little different, the exposure time was about 45 - 50 seconds.



Spinning the LED Christmas lights and running around the field of view, crazy.



The string of lights were wrapped around my hand, so that they were in a kind of ball, and I was able to spin my arm around to get this effect.



This time the lights were spun in a couple different directions; lasso around my head, spinning around in a circle facing the camera, and then a kind of figure-eight type spin.



As I was preparing the props for the next round of pictures, my friend let the creativity cut loose and did a series of exposures of his face. He would turn a flashlight on, exposing his face, then turn it off again, moving to the next spot to repeat the process.


This is another one of the face-light pictures, I particularly enjoyed the expressions on his face.

The next set of pictures introduced our most favorite prop yet of these type of pictures; fire. Inspired by a picture from a slow-synchronized flash image of a guy spinning a torch, my friend and I decided that we needed to try a torch too. A stick was wrapped with strips of old cloth, tied down with wire, and doused with lamp oil. The torches stayed lit for five to seven minutes. A bucket of water was prepared in case something caught fire. As you scroll through the pictures I would urge you click the images for the larger version, the beauty of the flame trails can not be appreciated at such a small resolution.





This as the first picture of the lit torch, I did not know what to do, so I just waved it around.



The torch was saved around in pattern of circles, if you look close you can see faint shadows of my arm waving the torch.


Again, the torch was spun in circles, you can see how the fire light me up and I was expose to the camera in a series of blurred poses.



This picture is neat because of the way the fire paths go behind my friend and he appears to be in the middle of the flame path. He moved his arm around so that the torch reached behind him.


The torch was spun in wide circles before being brought back down to the ground. The patterns the fire makes is very neat.



In the spur of the moment, I drew a pentagram, which some people believe is a symbol of evil. The effect is even better by the partial exposure of my face. I have to admit, the picture is a bit sinister looking. I apologize to those who may take offense to such a picture, it was done for artistic purposes only.



This picture is reminiscent of the LED angel wings I drew on my friend earlier.



My friend and I were so enthralled by the first set of fire pictures, with one torch, that we needed more pictures, and this time we made two torches. Here I am holding both torches lit, which gives the appearance of my caught on fire.



Again, not knowing what to do with myself and two torches, I made some circles which made some neat flame trails.



Two torches, spinning circles across the field of view.



My friend had me stand in this pose while he used the torches. We were both impressed on how amazing the picture turned out, giving the appearance of me being on fire. My friend started on the right side of the picture, drawing the flame trails around me and then exiting on the left side of the picture.



I took the torches and spun around in a circle to make it look like I was in the middle of spinning flames. I got dizzy and stumbled off the field of view.



No! The torches are dying! Quick, wave them around frantically for one final shot!


After the last set of torch pictures were taken, it was getting too late to do any more shots and after experiencing the euphoria of the fire pictures and not wanting to go back to LED pictures, we called it a night, already planning the next photo shoot using long exposures, with even grander ideas. Of course there is fire involved.

I hope you enjoyed viewing the pictures. What you saw was not all the pictures that were taken. What you saw were some of the pictures that turned out better than others. With every one good shot, there were two or three not so good shots, but that is simply the nature of photography. Each picture had an average of 20 seconds of exposure, ranging from five seconds to 30 seconds, except the 45 - 50 second exposure picture.

Feel free to comment, either on the blog or by email, I would like to hear what you thought about the pictures.

-K