Light Painting at Camp

Campsite light painting

This is from a campsite at the top of McClure Pass here in Colorado. My friend and I were on a road trip to the southwest corner of the state from Denver, mostly just to take pictures, camping along the way.

It was late our first night when we decided to pull out the tripods and cameras for some star shots. Soon, we were trying to use my SB28  to add a pop of light on the trees. It didn't really help the star shot but it got us into a lighting mode. So we started messing around with a  big Maglite, painting the trees and ground. The first couple of shots got us really going. Forget about the stars. How about that SB28 in the tent with a Pocket Wizard? Cool!

An hour later we were running around during 30 second exposures, performing a well choreographed series of movements with our flashlights. We must have run through it 50 times, trying to work out the details. Keep the camera from seeing the flashlight, don't stand in front of what you are lighting, watch out for the tree root you keep tripping over. Flashlight off, move quick to the other tree..... flashlight on, 4 seconds of light on that, flashlight off, move to the next tree, flashlight on, 2 seconds on that tree....  and that tree, exposure over. Back to the camera to see what we got.

The photo above is final result with just a little help from Photoshop to remove a branch that was extending into the tent.

During our return trip to Denver, we stopped off at Grand Mesa and camped again for our final night.  Our campsite there just wasn't as scenic so we tried to add the human element for interest. We also outlined the tent with a mini-Maglite and again put the SB28 inside.