Light Painting the Stars

On a recent trip to Las Vegas and Phoenix, a couple coworkers and I had the bug to get out to the desert and do some light painting. We had been out to Valley of Fire several times before, but never really explored much. This time would be very different.

Driving to Valley of Fire is a short one and a half hour trip (a little longer if you stop at the truckstop and fireworks stand for some amusement). Our usual spot is at the parking lot at the end of Mouses Tank Road. There are a few really great spots there (see some of my images in the gallery). This time we decided to hike in a bit. Down to an old movie set that is still standing and offers a GREAT backdrop. 

Here you can see a remaining wall of a "Spanish Fort" behind the Orb. 

Since we had near perfect skys, and just a sliver of a moon, we decided to set up a new little toy we had with us. The PowerShot S120 from Canon. Usually we just see these as point and shoots, not really intended for "creative use", but when you have 4 seasoned pro photographers jaws drop in unison when they see what this little camera can do, you know its much more capable. 

Canon PowerShot S120 Star Trails Mode

Here the S120's "Star Trails" scene mode was used...yes, this is fully automatic. All you do is choose how long you want it to go, and place the camera. The rest is up to this litle beast. 

Of course, we could not stop there...

 What can possibly go wrong with steel wool on fire and spinning it around in the dark?

We are heading out again in about a week, I'll try and post sooner this time

Canon PowerShot S120 Star Trails Mode

Growing the Gallery- Shameless Self Promotion

Been "snowed in" here in Georgia for a few days, so I have been working on the Fine Art America site to get more photos up.

Browse around, make a comment in the comments field or even just give me a thumbs up (more likes I get, the more exposure my photos get) and share with your friends on Facebook, Twitter or whatever new social media your using now. Who knows,  maybe one of these would look good on your wall as a canvas wrap or even a cool metallic print!

Here is the link for you   waterfalls metal prints

This is one of my past sales on FAA

4th of July Christmas?

So many people want Christmas in July, we did things a little differently. We had 4th of July in December.

My boss, Jeff Jensen (http://jeffejensen.blogspot.com) had made some plans for our team to get some in studio time after a long day of meetings. His instructions to us were "bring a tripod, a camera, long lens... and a filter you dont care about...earplugs could be nice too"

We went down to a studio in Salt Lake City area where a friend of his is in a Co-Op studio (NSL Studios) look them up on Facebook if your in the area. In the back of his car was a plethora of goodies- Christmas Ornaments, little ceramic figurines, and a dozen eggs... eggs?

Needless to say based on the image above, you can see what was in store for these little festive pieces of glass.

 

 

RGB Explosion

One of the studio guys had this neat little device that was attached to a airsoft gun. It had sensors that would detect how fast the BB was going, all we had to do was measure the distance, set the flashes, turn off the lights, and set the cameras for a long exposure... yes, a long exposure. In this case we were shooting at 5 sec, f11, ISO 200

That egg on the right looks a little too happy, guess he does not know whats in store for him next

Once we got bored shooting things (did I just really say that?) it was time to bring out the big stuff... explosives! Ok, firecrackers, but it might as well been dynamite. Now (most) of us safely were hiding behind a wall, foam core or another person to avoid the flying shards of glass, Jeff was the "fuse man" and yes, he still has all his fingers and most of his clothes came out unharmed.

This little piggy went...

Bad Santa

Super Nova Ornament

No REAL mythical holiday creatures or jolly old elves were harmed in the destruction of their figurine counterpart. Please do not try this at home (use someone else's place). We are not trained professionals, and this just shows what happens when 7 bored photographers have time, explosives, and a lot of tarps to cover the walls get together.

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)

The Great Georgia Airshow

I cant say I have missed too many of these shows and with the Federal Sequester in effect, I thought the lack of military aircraft would hinder the event... well, maybe it did a little as it was lacking the roar of F-18 Hornets, F-16 Falcons, F-22 Raptors and even amazing teams like the Navy's Blue Angels or the Air Force Thunder Birds. On the other hand, I still see aviation photography as a huge challenge.

Exposure settings, focus, tracking and lots of images all add up to get the "keepers". I shot roughly 2000 images (with 2 cameras that can do 8-12fps, that's not hard to do). Balancing your shutter speed is KEY when it comes to the movement of the plane and keeping it sharp. Too fast of a shutter, and the plane looks odd if its prop driven since the props freeze...that's generally a bad thing when flying. So you need to have a shutter slow enough to blur the props, but not so slow to get camera or motion blur... something I got A LOT of this trip as I was pushing my abilities a little too much- something you should always do to help improve your skills.

"J's Bird" American T-6/SNJ

The lighting was great...for spectators, not so much for photography. Sun was directly overhead and slightly in front of us. Exposures were very different from left to right, on the deck and in the air. This made for some GREAT silhouette opportunities.

CAF "Zero" Used in Tora, Tora, Tora. Actually a modified AT-6

The high humidity kept the smoke from the planes down on the flight level so it got smokey pretty quick making it hard to get a clear shot of many of the acrobatic planes. Luckily there was a good breeze, so it would blow through and you could shoot through the holes.

Team Aeorshell

For more images, check out the gallery on the Drew MacCallum Photography Facebook page

Orbs in NYC (1)

We started our quest in the morning taking a walk on the New York High Line. It's an old elevated train track that was converted into a walking trail and park. We found SEVERAL places ideal for done light painting. We went back at night but alas, we got there right after the gates were closed... So, we will go back later this month when we return for PhotoExpo

Plan B- Madison Square Park. 

Orbs are done by spinning a light or steel wool connected to a string. Since the local law enforcement probably would not like us slinging sparks all over French tourists, we used a handy LED set of lights. 

You need a good tripod, a cable release and some good timing along with trial and error to get the exposure. Some crowd control is wise too. 

This one ended up my favorite. Looking forward to our next trip up. 

Sunflowers Forever

I have never in my life seen a sunflower field this big... Just southeast of Chambersburg, PA in a town called New Franklin, lies two HUGE fields. My coworker and I had heard about this place after giving a seminar at the local camera store (Thanks people of LA Camera for the suggestion) and we got up early and drove out hoping we could find this place. It was a little vague based on the directions, needless to say, we found it.

 

I call this one "First One Up". As you may know, sunflowers actually move and "follow" the sun. Its actually how they grow that makes the stem twist. Some of the flowers were facing the opposite direction from the rest.

 

I just liked the detail in the face on this shot. 

Maybe I was channeling my inner 80's child on this one...

 

Imagine waking up each morning and seeing a massive field of yellow and green.