Light painting indoors or spinning physiograms are fun, and can be a great creative stop-gap when its raining or too dark for anything else. But it is a bit of a cop out… Some amazing effects can be seen when you venture outdoors and find the right location for your light painting activities.

It’s often tricky to balance the exposure for the ambient light of your scenery versus the light from your painting tools. That’s where the experimentation comes in.

After getting my LED Lenser V24 and Disney lightsabres early in the year, I had a go at light painting in various locations. This one was made with Alistair in Newcastle, with him waving the Lenser wand around while I minded the camera. It nearly made it for Day #1533:

I ventured out alone a few days later when I returned home. Hylands Park is pretty deserted after dark – but you can clearly see the flow of traffic on the A414 next to it. This one nearly made it for Day #1548:

I even had the foresight to drag the Lenser with me when I did the Paris overnight shoot in June – in the pouring rain! This one nearly made it for Day #1616:

Since then, I had not done any outdoor work until recently, when friends from GNPC suggested an after dark Light Painting workshop at a churchyard in the middle of nowhere. Several of us had fun using various tools. Here’s one image which were near misses for Day #1774:

When I was heading to the seaside the other day, I thought there may be a chance of an interesting location at dusk, so packed the light painting tools in the car. I got a few shots before the batteries in my LED Lenser were about to fade – this one nearly made it for Day #1789:

As you can see, with the right location, you can get some pretty impressive results. In another post, I will tell you a little bit about my lightpainting tools. And I’ll be sure to write more when I set about using them to make Orbs and Domes – hopefully soon!