BCPB#5

Now that things are settling down a bit after NANPA (www.nanpa.org), I have worked some with a few of my light paintings from Joshua Tree. This is one of my favorites and larger views display the thousands of stars visible in this image. To bring out the number of stars, I had to composite one image derived in ACR (Adobe Raw Converter) for the stars and another image for the tree. Both were taken from the same RAW Nef file (Nikon RAW file). I then dragged one on top of the other and then used a layer mask to create the combination.

Light painting is not that difficult with digital, it just takes some practice. You will need fresh battery(ies), a flash light ( I use a Maglite with colored gels, a Brinkmann QBeam 2 million candle power spot with filters that come with it, and Streamlight Stylus lights for small work), a cable release with long exposure capability (I use a Nikon MC-20 with my D2X), camera and tripod.

Put your camera into Manual mode and set your aperature to your desired depth of field. Make sure that Long Exposure noise reduction is active on your camera. Choose a time (start with 1-3 minutes) for your exposure. It should be short enough to exclude whatever ambient light is around (or not if you want a different feeling for your image). Then paint with your light over your subject. Keep the light moving, otherwise you will get a hotspot where it lingers. Wait for your image to process. Check you painting technique on the camera's view screen and modify as needed. It will take some practice to use this technique, but digital makes this so much more fun than when we did it with film. The only drawback is not having REALLY LONG exposures with digital (I mean 1-4 hours at night for great star trails). I am working on ways to capture star trails with digital, but if anyone out there has any ideas, let me know. Until next time, keep shooting out there.

BCPB#4: More Lessons from the desert

NANPA Summit and Joshua Tree NP were my focus for last week. Our tour for NANPA into JTNP went well with Rob Shepperd, Jim Clark and myself. It was lot's of fun to share that area with other photographers and especially help them out in the evening learning about light painting. I'm hoping to get images back from everyone and create a slide show to demonstrate their creativity.
Speaking of creativity, after I thawed out a bit (it was 7 degrees F one morning in JT), I was exploring different ways to express the feeling I had being in the desert with the Joshua Trees. I decided to walk around with a 12-24mm Wide Angle lens and try different looks. I was walking around helping participants on our morning shoot when I thought about getting really close to the trunk of the Joshua Tree and shooting up against the blue sky. Blue sky is need for this kind of image so the "tree limbs" don't get lost in the sky. I was rather happy with this view of the Joshua Tree because it is different from most of the views you normally see.
NANPA was a blast and is scheduled of Destin, FL next year at the end of Feb/ beginning of March. I am proud to be a member and tell people that NANPA is like a family and every year I go to the Summit, my "family" gets bigger as I meet more people. This year was no different and I got to meet some really nice people and have more to put in my list of friends. If you get a chance, check out NANPA at www.nanpa.org.

I'll be posting a light painting from JT later this week and describing the technique.

Bill

BCPB #3: Lessons from the desert

NANPA is in Palm Springs, CA this year and I just finished leading a tour for the pre Summit with Jim Clark and Rob Sheppard. We scouted for a couple of days looking for the right location for 30+ people to shoot. I arrived to record cold in the CA Mojave desert with Sunday morning getting down to 10 degrees by the thermometer on my car. My personal goal was to find a way to represent the wild beauty of this Mojave wilderness that is rock and sand and Joshua Trees. Naturalist tip: Joshua Trees ( Yucca brevifolia) is actually a yucca and not a tree or cactus. It belongs in the Lily family which has surprised a number of people. I finally decided to do some light painting at sunset to show off the trees. Light painting is easy and fun and I will write about it later. If your interested in more light painting, go to Dave Black's website at www.daveblackphotography.com. I hope to take back some spectacular images to show to my family to make up for missing Luke's 14th birthday.

More later from NANPA. -- Bill