Sunday, September 30, 2012

Light Art Photography

A few weeks ago, some friends and I went camping....which, first of all, was sooooo relaxing, and definitely needed. Unfortunately, it started raining early into the next morning and all day long the following day, so we all headed home. But either way, still wonderful to get away from the city and reality...at least for a short time....

But I digress... 

One of the girls I went with, Cherrie Lefevers (she has done some photography for me in the past, during my music daze), wanted to try out some "light art" photography....and I was supposed to help. I wasn't quite sure exactly what this was all about until we got in to the shoot...and I could see what she wanted....

We had to wait for it to be very dark outside, and then she put colored saran wrap on 3 different flashlights. The goal was for me to use all 3, in different shapes, movements, etc, while she took a picture. Then she wanted me in the picture as well, and so she would be using another camera to create the flash on my face.


If you're curious how this works - Cherrie put her camera on a tripod, and let the shutter stay open, while I played with the colored lights. Well....as for the flash thing....the other camera didn't work too well (if you look real close, you can see me in a few of the pictures). So we decided that I should just hold a bright white light to my face. We did all of this in one "shot" - basically with the shutter open the whole time.  (oh, there is SOOOOO much I still need to learn about photography, but SOOO excited!)

Now that we tried it out, and I have a clue as to what we're doing (as the "artist" lol), we will be doing a shoot again - and hopefully the pictures will turn out much better! 


Some things we've realized:

1) we need to find a second camera that has a bright enough flash to light up my face - this way I don't have to attempt to turn a bright white light on, and hold it there for about 7-8 seconds, and NOT move at all. (Plus, that light was soooo bright in my face, I could barely see!) 




 2) I suggested she shoots from further away, if possible....then I can move around - almost dance - with the colored lights to create a fun light trail. During this shoot, I had to stand in one position. 

3) I found that I could take one of the flashlights (red) and turn it on and off turn the shoot, creating "dots". I think we can do a lot more with this. (btw, the other flashlights were kind of hard to turn on and off, and so you can see where I picked them up from the ground).




For all the photographers out there, give this a try and make sure to send us your pictures! (and any other advice would be greatly appreciated!)










In the end, we had a blast! I could have done this for HOURS! So I'm excited to try again....

Stay tuned for more Light Art Photography 
by Cherrie Lefevers...


*Here is the link to the pics, if you want to see bigger versions:*