Light Painting Utah Video (part 1 of 3)

Hi Folks

For anybody that is interested in the landscape light painting that I do, you might be interested in this video.  It’s the first of 3 videos that I am putting out on how I did the landscape light painting in Utah.  This one is the introduction… Covers the following:

• Introduction by me which covers what I was trying to achieve
• A bit of a look at some of the different landscapes and locations as I was scouting for night locations
• An overview of some of my night shots from the trip

Video 2 will cover a detailed review of the images captured and post processing process for Mystical Rock

Video 3 will cover a detailed review of the images captured and post processing process for Metate Arch, Devils Garden

These videos are not detailed “how-to guides”… if you want to know how I do this step-by-step… then I suggest you go and check out my eBook.  That will tell you the technical details of how I do this type of photography.  This video series is more going to focus on how I made specific images and what I was trying to achieve when I created the images.

I’m not embedding the video into this blog post because everything was shot in HD video, so I encourage you to watch it in HD at Vimeo’s site.

I hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

I will try to put the other two videos up tonight.

Brent

Recovered from jetlag and starting to re-process my photos

I got back from Utah about a week ago… and I haven’t felt like touching my images during the week… spent time with the family.  Today I finally got around to organising my images and starting to go back and reprocess them properly (on a calibrated monitor etc.)  I’m probably going to pick half a dozen images and get them nicely printed and framed.

I haven’t started work on the videos yet… will get to that shortly.  Don’t feel like shooting right now… feel like processing my Utah shots properly.

Last Posting From Utah – Delicate Arch

Today I drive back to Denver and then fly back to Australia.  The trip has been utterly fantastic.  I decided to finish up with a night shoot of one of Utah’s most known icons – Delicate Arch.  I hiked up to the arch (about 45min reasonably steep hike… especially with camera an light painting gear).  There was the usual throng of tourists running around, so I set my camera up to do a time-lapse sequence of the sunset.  I haven’t done this before so it will be interesting to see if it works out OK.

I then made two mistakes…the only two mistakes I have made this trip

1) I screwed up the moonrise location…. I had consulted Jeff Conrad’s sun & moon calculator to determine the time and direction of the moon rise, but I must have misread it and totally had the wrong idea of where the moon was rising.

2) Because I was doing the time lapse sequence, I set my camera settings to medium resolution JPEG images….. and yup… I forgot to change it back to RAW for the night shoot of Delicate Arch.

So this image is my last from the trip…. I haven’t had much time to process it (as I finish breakfast).   But I guess this image will never be printed large 😦

Oh well, I suppose I can’t really complain as the rest of the trip has gone brilliantly.  If any of you ever find yourself at Arches NP, you must do sunset at Delicate Arch, and then hang around after the crowds go and enjoy the absolute beauty and majesty of whats around.  Sitting there in the balmy 80 degree warm breezes with a bottle of red wine, some snacks and just soaking it in until about midnight was a wonderful way to finish the trip and soak in the desert atmosphere.  There were a few other non-photographers that were also enjoying the night up at Delicate Arch…. I think I gave them a bit of a shock when I fired up my lights and started painting the arch.

Anyway, back to Sydney today… lots of images to sort though and process (nothing like Christian’s 8,000 images though).

Mesa Arch – Canyonlands

OK…. OK… This is a bit of a cliche’d image, but if you are staying in Canyonlands you just HAVE to shoot Mesa Arch at Dawn…. once you are there,  you’ll find there aren’t a whole lot of unique angles… there really only is a couple of variations on the one shot.

I had heard that you can get up to 30 photographers at this location jockeying for position, so I thought I’d get there an hour before Dawn and stake my spot.  I bought my little stove with me and brewed up a nice cup of coffee while I perched on the edge of the cliff watching the pre-dawn light.   About 20 minutes later another photographer came and set up and then a whole frigging bus of Japanese tourists rock up.  Whenever any of them got anywhere near my angle of sight I gave them the filthiest glare…. now normally that might not do it.. but I haven’t shaved for 9 days…. I slept out in my swag last night and I reckon that I look like some strange psycho right about now….. trust me… the glare did the trick.

I also light painted the same arch last night, so it will be interesting to contrast the two images… dawn in colour… night in B&W.

Today I’m going to hike out to False Kiva in Canyonlands, and then for my finale I’m going to try to light paint Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.

Tomorrow my adventure comes to an end as I drive back to Denver and then fly back home.

It has been a blast.

BP