Ginna put up this cool header. It’s still there. Or it was this afternoon. And I found myself enviously wondering how the heck she did it. So I got out my camera and thought about it.
Palm against forehead – of COURSE!!
Her stuff is still more magical than mine, but here is what I figured out:
You take Christmas lights:
Then you disengage your auto focus. Then, manually, you step back your focus.
And you get this.
Slightly out of focus.
More out of focus.
Way more out of focus.
Out of focus.
Bigger bubbles.
Lovely, grand, overlapping bubbles.
Fun.
Very fun.
I found this Santa shape hiding in the corner of one of the windows, a trick of reflection.
And as I was shooting this, I remembered a little light painting that I had done in college. So I decided to try some more.
A quick scoop to the right.
A short over hand loop.
A wild fling upwards.
And then I really got going.
Open up the focus a little more.
Notice a change?
Cooler colors. Short packets of light = LEDs.
A combination of regular tungsten lights and LED lights.
Tungsten.
I moved from window to window, perspective to perspective, changing the shape of the light and negative space.
These were shot in the craft room – very few lights, little ambient light. The darker the room, the longer the shutter will remain open. The longer it’s open, the more scope for line drawing.
Fun, huh? Quick – before you take down our lights, try some of these. Put them up and link to them in a comment. I’d love to see.
28 Responses to ~:: Ring, Christmas Lights ::~