Painting on the Lake

Here we are again... on the road in Salt Lake City, UT for a team meeting. A few of us got in a day early and decided to head out and play south of Salt Lake City and light some night sky... and some other things... turns out, that lable that says "do not hold mortar in hands" is a good suggestion. It typically results in a trip to the ER. This time our co-worker was somewhat lucky (if you can call it that) he can still count to 5 on his right hand.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM

Canon EOS 5D Mark III EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM




Canon EOS 5D Mark III EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM



Canon EOS 5D Mark III EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM



Canon EOS 5D Mark III EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM



Canon EOS 5D Mark III EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM




Canon EOS 5D Mark III EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM



Canon EOS 5D Mark III EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM


 
Canon EOS 5D Mark III EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM



Here's "The Shot" that will probably be the most expensive shot Jeff has ever done lightpainting...




Canon EOS 5D Mark III EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM

Beaches, Birds and Barns

Yep, March came in like a lion...and continues to show no sign of becoming a lamb (work or weather related). Since the last posting on our travels to Las Vegas for the WPPI show, I have been all over the southeast US.

We'll start in Cocoa Beach Fl and I had a real bug to get up early and get some sunrise shots at the beach, but first upon arriving in the hotel, while on the phone with my boss, this little guy was working hard on a tree outside my balcony-

 I was able to get up and get a decent sunrise. Its mornings like this I really wish I had remembered my ND filters to get a really smooth look to clouds and water... I need to get a second set to add to the other camera bags... back ups are always a good thing.

One friend told me it looked very "Bay Watch"ish... in which I pointed out the HUGE difference- theirs is a SUNSET, this is obviously a SUNRISE! 


Next was St Simons Island GA where I was able to get some sunrise shots before a workshop in Jekyll Island. These are from the St Simons Pier

Again, I am wishing for my ND filters...maybe its time to invest in a Variable ND filter! Yep, that's it, I HAVE to have one now.

From St Simons, I headed over to Jekyll Island for a Canon workshop with Parish Kohanim, a truly inspirational photographer and instructor, I HIGHLY recommend you take a workshop with him or at least go see one of his lecturers. Since I was working the workshop, I dont really try real hard to get images, since its our job to assist the attendees, but I was able to get a couple keepers...

Its hard to get a bad photo when you are working with professional models...

I was planning on going back to get some sunrise shots at Driftwood Beach, however a storm rolled in and all we had was clouds and rain in the morning...so off to the next site.

One of my accounts had scheduled a shooting event at Sylvan Heights Bird Park. We had about 30 attendees and a boat load of gear for them to try, I had the opportunity to bring a Canon EF 200-400 f4 L with me and get some shots.

The workshop was over and the staff and I were all exhausted, but we still had an hour drive back to town, so two of us decided to make a few stops along the way to see what kind of images we could get of what seemed to be hundreds of old barns and structures in eastern NC along the way.

Well that wraps up this post, its off to Vegas (again) in a week, so keep an eye out for more LightPainting.

Early Mornings and Late Nights

Whew! I am in need of a recharge! The last few weeks have been hectic- I am writing this post as I am doing laundry in a hotel in St Simmons Island, GA. Over the last few weeks, I spent the night camping in the desert, worked another show in Las Vegas, traced the outer edge of the state of Florida from Tampa to Miami, and now prepping for a workshop with Parish Kohanim in Jekyll Island, GA.

My boss and good friend Jeff Jensen and I decided to get some REAL camera time in the Valley of Fire (yes, we have become a little obsessive with that place) by going out to WPPI a day early. The goal was to scout for new locations so we could do a team building shoot, and to get some new light paintings done.

There are few places in the world where every single direction you look is as breathtaking as Valley of Fire. If you get to spend time there, make sure you see a sunrise or sunset, we got BOTH.

 5D Mark III f22 (HDR in Nik)

While the colors did not really "pop" like we wanted them to, the cloud cover was somehow "blown away" and by nightfall with no moon at all, we had stars... LOTS of stars.
5D Mark III f5.6 10min ISO 400

The "Cabins" were a great location to play with some new lighting tricks, "domes" and EL Wire we brought with us...its a good thing Jeff drove his Suburban, we had LOTS of gear.

 5D Mark III 14mm f5.6 6min ISO 400 and 6 or so pops of 3 600EX-RT's placed behind and on top of the cabins. the blue "smoke" is the EL Wire.

 

 We did one last shot that night on the way to the campsite, setting up a camera with an intervelometer to capture star trails. This is a 34 image stack from a  5D III 14mm f2.8 30sec. Thats either a plane or aliens streaking through.

Well, I did do ONE more that night... my little tent light painted. 

Like I said, sunrise or sunset, either one (or both) are spectacular!

 5D Mark III f22 1/25th sec ISO 250

Team Time

We did manage to convince some of the rest of the team to come out for some more on another night. I think we could have just left the cameras in the car and had just as much fun... but we did get some great shots.

5D Mark III 14mm f4.0 3.5min ISO 400

While Jeff spun an orb, I was waving the EL Wire to make a "river of light". Our coworkers were not sure what to think of this odd behavior until they saw the images on their screens... 

And then....

5D Mark III 14mm f6.3 4min ISO 400

This was the first time they had seen the steel wool set ablaze... 

5D Mark III 14mm f4 6min ISO 400

And for one final shot, we broke out the wheels again... NOBODY was going to come down that road.

Satellite Beach Orbs

Well, as usual I was on the road again this week. Recently I picked up a Manfrotto Befree travel tripod. This has been a great little addition to my backpack (ThinkTank Street Walker Hard Drive). While it's not a gorgeous Gitzo Carbon Traveler, at only $200 with the ball head, I'm finding this going with me everywhere. 

I called my friend Ashley Kuvlesky (http://www.a-kphoto.com) in Melbourne FL and she wanted to see how we do our light painting orbs. I brought a couple LED lights with me and she had scouted a location at Satellite Beach for us. Upon arrival, we noticed the tide was coming in QUICK so we had to work fast- hmmm long exposures, tricky lighting, getting dizzy spinning in circles and the tide ready to wash our gear to Cuba...this could be fun. 

Our first set up was ok, there was a ramp that brought you down to the beach and looked like a decent background. After a few test shots, we determined a 1.5 minute exposure would be good. I grabbed the LEDs and did a few orbs varying the time. In the end, a 60 second orb (about 2x around) this was the result. 

Man, I need to work on my "orb technique"

We REALLY wanted to get some water in the next shot, but time was getting short so we only had time for one or two more. So we turned around and reset. We tried to get more water in the shot, but the tide did not want to cooperate. One big surge did come up and Ashley had to grab both cameras to keep them from a watery demise... That girl can move quick (esp when her 5D III is in danger)!

Again, need to work that technique... On a hill is not easy. 

We then wanted to use the ramp we came down on and this is where it got fun! 

We kept the same 90 second exposure and shot down the ramp. It was a little narrow, but I really liked this view shooting down. 

I had one more shot I wanted us to try, a "warp". We adjusted exposure to 30 seconds, I stood in front of the camera and proceeded to walk away from the camera while slowly spinning the LED. I think this is my favorite of the lot. 

The "gaps" are from where the light passed in front of my legs and head. 

In case you're not familiar with this effect, a few things you need:

DSLR, intervelometer (Canon TC-80N3), tripod, a fairly bright LED light (these are blue camp LEDs from Dicks Sporting Goods with the "cone" removed), string, and BandAids (from the rope burn you may get from the string)