Image #1       Saddlery Light … This is my first Lightpainting. The technique, in-and of itself, was an Exploration into lighting by simply Experimenting with a variety of flashlights and exposures. This saddle and western tack placed on a red horse blanket was Lightpainted using a small Mag-Lite. I knew almost nothing about the technique. There were no classes or workshops on Lightpainting back in the day. I first heard of Lightpainting when I was part of a collection of photographers speaking to NPPA members in Denver. I had seen a few examples in a presentation by another photographer earlier in the day and immediately the interest was sparked in my mind. I returned home that evening and wasted no time putting together a manageable subject to Lightpaint. At about midnight I shut the door to my office, turned off the lights, and embarked on my Lightpainting journey. It was January 1999 and film was still the industry standard and so it seemed wise to have the final product on film. I would determine my exposure using one of Nikon’s earliest digital products, the Coolpix 950. I felt the digital image on the LCD screen would act as a kind of Polaroid to guide me. Unfortunately, the longest shutter time on the Coolpix 950 was 10 seconds so I learned to apply the light very fast. The Coolpix 950 had a 1.92 megapixel ccd which translated to a 5.6MB Tiff file size. The digital image that appeared on the 2 inch LCD screen helped me in determine how much light to apply to each part of the scene. I would press the shutter on my Nikon f5 film camera at the same time as the Coolpix 950, thus making a 10 second Lightpainting on film as well as digital. The surprise was that the digital image, even with its small file size, had a more artistic and almost painterly quality than the film image. Pure desire and passion to produce an artistic picture that was unlike any picture I had previously made urged me on to Explore and Experiment with this lighting technique. My college degrees in Commercial Graphics Design and Studio Drawing make Lightpainting the perfect marriage of Photography and Artistic Expression for me. Here is my first Lightpainting. It is the Coolpix 950 digital file. Nikon Coolpix 950, ISO400, 10 second exposure, F5.6, WB Cloudy, Gitzo Tripod with SLIK Super Ball Head, Mag-Lite, 8mg Flash Card.

“You will never know what is possible until your try.”

Image #3       LaReve’ … LaReve (the dream) was made about 1 year ago. Again, with this image I experimented with soft focus to create a dream like quality. Lightpainting a live subject has its own complexities. Usually the subject should remain still during the long exposure time. For this Lightpainting my subject remained still for the 30 seconds of exposure time. I Lightpainted her face, hair, hands, and shoulders in about 6 seconds and then “soft focused” the lens and Lightpainted the rest of her body. I wanted her white dress to have an almost dream like cascading water quality and the soft focus technique worked well. It’s like using a tilt shift lens with selective focusing capabilities. I love this effect which came about simply by experimenting. Nikon D3s, ISO500, 30 seconds at f16, Nikon 24-70mm (at 40mm), WB 8330K, Gitzo Carbon Fiber Tripod with Gitzo Ball Head and Kirk “L” Bracket, Inova Bolt 2L, SanDisk 16G Flash Card.

“You have nothing to loose accept a little time in the dark.”