Light Art

Ever since the first time I discovered that this was possible I have been obsessed with making light art. I really wish I had a Digital SLR but they live outside the budget of an unemployed person (Me).

All you have to do is set your camera so that it opens the shutter for an extended period of time. Usually, for photos taken in daylight, the shutter is only open for about 1/60th of a second. My camera has a mode called starry night and it allows you to take long exposure pictures. The only intervals are 15, 30 and 60 seconds, but with a digital SLR you have a much better range of different times. You can even set it to "bulb" which will allow you to keep the shutter open as long as you press the shutter button.

 I took this in Tilden Park in the Berkeley hills. I took it with my camera and moved around flashing my friend's DSLR camera's flash to get the orbs shown above.

 This was taken a long time ago on a camera that had no mode for long exposures. All it had was a high sensitivity mode which kept the shutter open for no more than 1 second probably. It is all I had to work with at the time.

 Now after you understand how it works you can get real creative. There is no limit to the possibilities it just takes some practice. 

 And maybe a little luck sometimes.

I discovered you can "write on walls" with light. 

It was a pretty awesome discovery for me.

I do what I can with the resources I have and, for the most part, I get by. When I get the money saved up I will get a DSLR and hopefully I can provide some awesome light art.