Tag: painting

  • 4 Days In Death Valley

    4 Days In Death Valley

    [wzslider autoplay=”true”] We were delighted to be invited on a sleep depriving, dust breathing, 4 day shooting marathon in California’s Death Valley. This post documents the ordeal and showcases, what we’re sad to admit, are less than stellar photographs. Day 1. We arrive in Las Vegas as the light is fading. Not bothering with the…

  • Tutorial: Burning the Jeep

    Tutorial: Burning the Jeep

    With a friend heading in to town for the weekend, we started planning our most elaborate burn shot yet, we wanted to surround our Jeep with fire and smoke. The fire was the easy part, we’re getting quite good at that. We simply took the fire whip idea (tutorial here) and made a 9 foot…

  • Failed: Attempt at ‘odd’ lighted balloon painting

    Failed: Attempt at ‘odd’ lighted balloon painting

    A friend recently showed me a picture of orbs glowing gently in the night forest. After some time, I figured out I could recreate the scene by placing glow-sticks inside inflated balloons. I think the idea is sound but this picture is appaling. The leassons here are that you need LOTS more balloons, you need…

  • Tutorial: Beautiful Smooth n Soft Skin

    Tutorial: Beautiful Smooth n Soft Skin

    Having seen my new LinkedIn picture, my beautiful wife wanted one of her own. Of course, she didn’t want the ‘aged’ version I did for myself (see here) but something a little more realistic. Pictures of her wouldn’t usually be the subject of a tutorial because she’s blessed with a radiant smile, sparkling eyes and…

  • Tutorial: Building the ‘Mega Light Wand 2000’ light painting tool

    Tutorial: Building the ‘Mega Light Wand 2000’ light painting tool

    When you first get in to Cold Cathode light painting your ambitions will be small. You’ll be impressed when you’ve finally worked out how to take something that normally fits inside your souped-up computer and turned it in to something that works in an abandoned warehouse late at night. The kit usually contains at least…

  • Lady Of Light

    Lady Of Light

    One of the nice things about light painting is that as long as you’re not a purest (a straight from the camera kinda guy) you get all sorts of options in post processing that are often surprising. I’ve been working on some new light painting tools. I thought they were done and so took them…

  • Fire Painting Class 101

    Fire Painting Class 101

    I am delighted to announce that the Star Circle Academy was stupid enough to let me co-host another ‘light painting with fire’ event with Eric. We spent Friday night on the beach with a brace of fire lovers burning things and capturing the results in full color glory. Light painting is cool. Painting with fire…

  • Tutorial: Flares and Fake Scars

    Tutorial: Flares and Fake Scars

    For the final part of this tutorial series, we turn to the sexy but scarred leg of my filthy assistant (look it up) being lit by a road flare. You’ve obviously seen the video, the tutorial on fire breathing and the one on hairspray burning. This is the end of the road, I’m not going…

  • Tutorial: Burning Aerosols Over a Naked Flame

    Tutorial: Burning Aerosols Over a Naked Flame

    Now you’ve seen the video of me playing with fire, and you read the article about how to make giant fireballs with cornflour, the obvious next question is, how do you burn aerosols such as hairspray? That’s what we’re going to answer to day. And be warned, this one gets hot. This is the picture…

  • Tutorial: Painting With Fire Video

    Tutorial: Painting With Fire Video

    I get asked all the time to show how I make fire pictures. Well thanks to the amazing directorial and camera skills of my lovely wife, I here present a brief look at fire blowing, throwing, and spinning. We use road flares, steel / wire wool, magnesium, hairspray and corn flour. Epic is probably the…

  • Under the fire red umbrella

    Under the fire red umbrella

    The Star Circle Academy recently invited Eric and I to burn some stuff for them. And so on a warm Friday evening, 20 people climbed down on to the beach in Santa Cruz and proceeded to make mayhem. Steel wool (wire wool if you’re British), magnesium, lighter (BBQ) fluid, flash lights (torches), and all manner…

  • Taking Aim

    Taking Aim

    As you’ll find out if you stick around, I’m terrible at flash photography. That said, I’m trying hard and learning a lot. The above photo has a large strobe in front and to the left of the image to give Deanna the front light see needs, but the scene is mostly lit by the light…