Sunday Stills - Light Painting

This weeks challenge is a fun one. Set your camera on a slower shutter speed…….or just turn the flash off on a point and shoot, find some lights and shoot them moving your camera as you do. You can also find some moving lights (traffic for instance) and photograph those (a tripod or setting your camera on something and using a remote or the timer works well for this). You could also have someone (even yourself-using your cameras timer and a slow shutter speed) use a flashlight in the dark. The challenge in this is to play with aperture and shutter speed. Be creative!



I planned on trying for a long exposure star shot over the barn for this challenge, but the moon has been so bright that you can't see the stars. My next thought was a downtown Lexington outdoor skating rink picture with car headlights in the background. That didn't pan out either. When I saw one of the Lexington Livery horses out, I knew exactly what I wanted to try to do.

Danny Raley, the owner and driver, had a few minutes between rides, so he and Jefferson Davis took me down to Main Street and stopped by Triangle Park. I set up my tripod, waited for the light to turn and gave it a whirl.

I set my camera to keep the shutter open as long as I held the button down, focused manually on the horse, hoped he would hold still for a few seconds and waited for the light to change. I tried between 3 to 5 seconds exposures and this one was 3.3 seconds. I tried a couple ISO settings - this is 200.

The car lights are not as dominant as I'd hoped. I think colored tail lights rather than white head lights would have been better. I wish I'd thought to try some different apertures. Never crossed my mind. What a brain :-/.

I enjoyed visiting with Danny, an old friend. I used to drive for him years ago and those are some good memories. Great old horses, great folks to drive with, interesting places to go, things we saw and did... An expected treat from a fun challenge!

For more Sunday Stills...