MWGL Photography thread

[ken]

Night sky photo of the glorious Milky Way through Delicate Arch, Utah, USA. I "light painted", illuminating the amazing rock formation with an LED flashlight during the exposure. All the color work was done while the shutter was open, in other words, and is not a Photoshop creation/manipulation.

~more notes on the above photo~

Gazing up at Delicate Arch feels like peering into the infinite beyond, the magnificent arch acting as a portal for the center of our galaxy and beyond. For this photo, I waited a bit for the Milky Way to drift farther south, then lined it up underneath the arch for this image. I light painted the arch with a small Streamlight LED flashlight to keep the arch from going to silhouette. The Milky Way is easy to see on a moonless night such as this one.

Title: Door to Infinity
Photo: Ken Lee Photography
Info: Nikon D610, AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens at 14mm, 20 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 4000, 2014-06-25 12:37 am. Light painted with Streamlight LED flashlight.
Location: Arches National Park, Utah, USA

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The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in this night sky light painted shot, illuminating the bristlecone pine with an LED flashlight during the exposure. All the color work was done during while the camera shutter was open, and is not a Photoshop creation/manipulation.

~added notes about the above photo~

The gorgeous night sky, largely free from light pollution, as seen from the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. Up, up, up in the White Mountains of California exist a forest of trees that have flourished in the face of high, arid conditions at 11000 feet/3350 m in altitude. Many of these trees live for 5000 years, and even after dying, can remain for 5000 more years, remaining. In other words, it's quite possible that some trees have been standing for as long as 10000 years, long long before Lucille Ball roamed the earth. It was cloudy when I took this set of photos, giving a slightly more eerie, surreal sort of feel in many of the images. I hope you enjoy them!

The Forever Tree, located in the oldest forest in the world. Many of these trees live for 5000 years, and even after dying, can remain for 5000 more years, remaining. In other words, it's quite possible that some trees have been standing for as long as 10000 years, long long before Lucille Ball roamed the earth. I don't actually know if this tree has a name. I just like the name.

Title: The Forever Tree (3600)
Photo: Ken Lee Photography
Info: Nikon D610, AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens at 14mm, 128 seconds, f/7.12, ISO 640. 2014-07-15 00:54. I used an LED flashlight for light painting.
Location: Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, CA, USA

 

[ken]

This is a photo of two dinosaur sculptures, which were created by sculptor Ricardo Breceda, in Borrego Springs, CA, with the Milky Way in the heavens above in this night sky long exposure photo. All the color work was done during the exposure, and is not a Photoshop creation/manipulation.

~more added info about the above photo~

A Carnosaurus and Allosaurus locked in a combat that shakes the stars above. These sculptures, among my favorite in Borrego Springs, are created by Ricardo Breceda. This photo is blended from two photos. The Milky Way is visible, as the camera is facing south.

Title: Battle of the Galactic Dinosaurs
Photo: Ken Lee Photography
Info: Nikon D610, AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens at 14mm. Two photos are blended. One is for the light painting: 380 seconds, f/5.6, ISO 800. The second is exposed for the Milky Way: 20 seconds, f/2.8, ISO 4000. 2014-07-07 2:34 am. Light painted with LED flashlight.
Location: Borrego Springs, CA, USA

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This is an art installation out in the Nevada desert. I "light painted" this bus, illuminating it with LED flashlights with colored gels. Like my other "light painting" photos, all the color work was done during the exposure, and is not a Photoshop creation/manipulation.

~added info about the above bus photo~

How this bus stays up, I'm not sure. I came up here Thursday evening. There were two photographers, Matt and Justin, already here, but they left shortly afterwards for Bodie ghost town in California. I immediately began shooting, a bit dissatisfied with the shots I had taken the previous night, as the moon was blotted out by huge thunder clouds, and everything was very dark, not so conducive for this sort of light painting photography. Tonight was much better!

Outside the historic mining town of Goldfield, NV, in a desert dotted by Joshua Trees, you can see a field of old cars that are wildly painted and jammed into the ground at unlikely angles. This is the International Car Forest of the Last Church, created by Michael "Mark" Rippie and painted by Chad Sorg. In July 2014, I stayed in Goldfield and created night photos with light painting to enhance the bold colors of the painted cars even more. Light painting photos of this nature are often best done near a full moon, and during this evening, the clouds mostly cooperated!

With a nod of gratitude to Troy Paiva and Lance Keimig, who largely pioneered this sort of light painting photography.

Title: Big Blue Bus Burrowing Bottomward (3163)
Photo: Ken Lee Photography
Info: Nikon D610, AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8G ED lens at 14mm, 146 seconds, f/8, ISO 400. 2014-07-11 00:20. I used an LED flashlight and SB-600 with gels to light paint. All colored light work was done during the exposure, and is not a Photoshop creation.
Location: International Car Forest of the Last Church, Goldfield, NV, USA

 

[mongooz]

spectacular photographs.

equipment/settings?

 

[Tiltsta]

Yeah, those are amazing!

 

[ken]

Oh wow, thanks. Will look up settings and all that later. Thank you so much!!!

 

[jaxn slim]

Those are beautiful, ken! Really impressive.

 

[ken]

spectacular photographs.

equipment/settings?

Thanks, Jaxn Slim.

Mongooz, just to avoid confusion, I edited my post, adding a bunch of information underneath each photo so it'd be easier to look at them. Thanks for the kind words again!

 

[jaxn slim]

Thanks, Jaxn Slim.

Mongooz, just to avoid confusion, I edited my post, adding a bunch of information underneath each photo so it'd be easier to look at them. Thanks for the kind words again!

Outstanding. I've never done anything like this. Do you have a preferred LED flashlight for this type of work?

 

[Tiltsta]

Yeah, and add any hints you have on light painting techniques, as it looks like something cool that can really make a night photograph come alive in the foreground. Oh, and again, amazing pictures!

 

[ken]

Outstanding. I've never done anything like this. Do you have a preferred LED flashlight for this type of work?

Thanks!

It's a LOT of fun, but watch out....it's addicting. And the hours rush past in a hurry. It's really really fun.

I like the Dorcy for lighting up stuff far away or stuff that needs to be really bright. It's big, however, so if I am backpacking in to some place, I use a much smaller light such as the Streamlight. And finally....well, you don't want to even know how much this costs , but I purchased a Protomachine, which is made for light painting.

The photos that I have displayed are probably all the Streamlight because I hiked in for all of those.

Protomachine LED2: http://www.protomachines.com/product-p/led2.htm

Dorcy spotlight:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00307FDHA/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Streamlight flashlight:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007RB82CS/ref=oh_details_o02_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[ken]

Yeah, and add any hints you have on light painting techniques, as it looks like something cool that can really make a night photograph come alive in the foreground. Oh, and again, amazing pictures!

It depends on which light painting photo you are discussing, as the techniques are a bit different, although there of course is some overlap. But one is an attempt to look reasonably natural, to the degree that if I didn't say something, you might not say, "Oh, huh....he illuminated that tree with a flashlight! Wow!" But there again, that bus...there's nothing natural looking about that! That's bustin' out the colored gels and bringin' the freak.

Approach it as if you are placing lights to illuminate something in a studio. But one advantage is that since you often have a decent amount of time and you and your light source are portable, so you can illuminate it at different angles very easily.

Study the Masters of light. Rembrandt lighting? Yeah. Use that for the same reasons he did...for flattering light, creating specific highlights and shadows, etc. That kind of thing.

To be consistent, I often count from each vantage point in which I am illuminating so when I see the photo in the LED screen, I can adjust by increasing/decreasing the count in each location. This is almost second nature to me now.

 

[mongooz]

here's one from today......a worm engraved log.

 

[ken]

Nature's art. Incredible.

 

[mongooz]

this was my hike yesterday morning. we were getting quite the blizzard.

 

[dmn23]

 

[mongooz]

cool sunset pic

 

[jaxn slim]

One of my favorite local bands at one of my favorite local venues to photograph.
Them Vibes at 12th & Porter.

 

[BS555]

here's one from today......a worm engraved log.

It's some kind of primeval goatse created by ancient aliens.

 

[dmn23]

St. Francis Cathedral, Santa Fe, NM.

 

[jaxn slim]

This show was so dark, I shot most of these at ISO 12800. That's right, 12800.
They're probably not printworthy, but I think they're good enough for most online viewing.