Light Painting Kidney Beans

Last month while on assignment in Western Nebraska, we spent some time on a kidney bean farm. I came home with a handful of beans and a photo idea that fermented for a month before I finally put all the elements together and started shooting. A few beans, an old piece of plywood, mini-mag flashlight with map reader, and my nicest shirt.

Here is how I created the shot.

Emerald Pools

If you spend a few days in Zion National Park, one of your planned destinations should be the Emerald Pools. A short hike along some very nice trail will reward you with a view of the high canyon walls, red like so much of Utah, over a thousand feet straight up. People were camped on the side of the shear wall, too much to climb in a single day their bivouacs were perched dizzyingly high, a web of safety lines attached to their shelf-like protrusion.

At the base of all that vertical stone is the mirro-like Emerald Pool. A quiet little oasis of lush vegetation and crumbling rock. The fractured, fallen pieces of the cliff, huge chunks of stone, sit all around the water.  The reflections were irresistible.

Zion Water

The path continued on through the trees and ferns, the sound of rushing water growing louder with each step. The trail emerged from the woods and lead to a small footbridge that crossed a beautiful creek. Instead of crossing the bridge and continuing along the trail I decided to walk upstream along the bank to find worthy ground for a few tripod holes. 

The day was gray and the overcast meant that a long exposure of moving water was possible without having to stack a bunch of neutral density filters over the lens.  I found a spot that was relatively clear of the Fall debris cluttering much of the water, set my tripod up and started shooting. After a few shots, adjusting the shutter speed and aperture to achieve the amount of motion I wanted to show in the water, I headed back to the trail and crossed the bridge. Off to the "Emerald Pools", one of Zion's famous beauty spots.