Recently, I joined the Superiorland Photography Club. My hope was to gain new skills and experiences from my new club community. New experiences are exactly what I got Friday evening on July 10th at our club light painting event.
Making our way down the shoreline of Au Train Bay, my club mates and I rambled about what we hoped to capture. We made our way around the bay to the calm water trapped between the river and Superior to set up our cameras and tripods and talk shop while the sun set around us.
The best part about light painting is that anyone can participate in creating something cool. Light painting does not just include photographers! As the last rays of light disappeared everyone pulled out the glow lights and steel wool and the fun began.
Non-photo enthusiasts moved into the water to do their glow sticks dances. Others lit steel wool and spun it high into the air from a string. Naturally, everyone with a camera was snapping away and mesmerized by the flickering lights.
At the end of each session, everyone rushed to see what they got on their camera before the next piece of steel wool got lit on fire. The group shrieked with joy as images came out better than expected. Light painting blew my mind. I got to use capabilities on my camera I’d never touched before and create something new!
If you would like to try this exciting process for yourself, grab some friends and follow this simple checklist to make sure you have everything you need:
- Some kind of light source
- LEDs,
- Glow sticks (work very well)
- Steel wool (requires being lit on fire and string to swing around)
- Sparklers
- Lazers
- A dark area (preferably no city glow or highway street lights)
- A camera with long exposure capabilities.
- DSLR Camera, Digital Single Lens Reflex Camera
- A tripod to put your camera on.
- A remote for the camera shutter (not required but very useful)
- Friends to go have fun running around with glow sticks and lighting things on fire!!
Comment if you’re interested in creating your own photos just like the ones featured on this page!
If you have any questions, please feel free to comment and I will respond as soon as possible.
Interested in joining the Superiorland Photography Club, anyone is welcome! Visit the Facebook page to join today!
If you have already attempted light painting, feel free to share your own images below!
or submit photos to the GLR community gallery
