Light Painting at the Local Skate Park

I went out last night with Scotty MacGregor to light things on fire and take pictures of those things in the dark.  We were well armed with a bag of steel wool, a whisk with a wire connected to it (I'll elaborate on this in a future post), multiple lighters, 26 sparklers, a bucket of water, a fire extinguisher, two tripods, multiple lenses, a remote shutter release (I finally got to put that thing to use), one still photo camera and one video camera.

This shoot was probably the most fun that I've ever had with a camera!  We started off by lugging all our gear down a path, up a hill, across a bridge and through a tunnel only to find out that the tunnel was lit at night (!!).  We experimented with a few shots but decided on heading over to the skate park, which met most of our criteria (non-flammable cement, away from people who may want to call the cops and completely dark).  The tunnel just wasn't providing the contrast that we needed it to.  So, we packed the gear up and then drove over to the skate park and found it empty.  Scott documented most of the shoot with his video camera and is going to post it soon on his blog.  I'll provide a link once he does.

In the meantime, here's one shot that I've finished working on.  It was accomplished by lighting two sparklers (one in each hand) and going crazy waving them all over the place while keeping my feet planted in one position.  Scott worked the camera on this one, I believe the exposure time was 13 seconds, F stop at about 13 and ISO was at 200.  I'll post more in the days to come.  Stay tuned!