The winner for the “A Message Of Thanks” themed Light Painting Photography contest is Rob D’Angelo for the simply great image in a series of positive messages Rob has been creating during these uncertain times. This is what Rob had to say about his winning image.

“This image has a lot of meaning for me. Here is a little background on what I had created. We’re all living in uncertain times right now, due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. So much has changed, in so many ways. To keep myself motivated, positive, and to take my mind off things, I wanted to channel my creativity, so I had the idea to develop a series of these light painting photo messages – this is one of the photos in that series.”

“I wanted to combine my love for landscape photography, with my love for light painting and try to keep things relatively simple and clean. Each photo would contain a single positive word or phrase written in it, such as “hope”, “stay home”, “in this together”, “be positive”, and most recently and above all – “thank you.” I wanted to create a special thank you, to all of our first responders, healthcare professionals, and every other essential worker out there every day on the front lines during this pandemic. I wanted to say how we truly appreciate their sacrifices, courage, and how hard they are working to keep us all safe. The idea was to share these photos on my social channels, in hopes to help others stay positive as well.”

“From a technical perspective, besides choosing what word to write, I tried my best to associate a specific color, with a specific word – in the case of this photo, I chose blue. Originally, I thought to paint symbols and icons with the words for representation, but saw how complicated it was looking. In the end, I decided to simply show an EKG graph. At first, I thought it would be fun to take each photo in different locations, but thinking again, the consistency of “home” in each photo would be symbolic. So I stayed in my backyard for each. For the tools used, I kept it pretty simple. I’m currently using a Canon 70D and was shooting wide at 10mm. The settings used were f/14 ISO 100 and 140 second exposure. I’m currently using a NITECORE MT226C Torch to illuminate everything. For the letters, I used a Light Painting Brushes White Opaque Light Writer, with a Blue Screw On Color Filter. To illuminate the background, I used a Light Painting Brushes White Color Hood for parts of the scene, and then attached a Yellow Color Filter to hit other details in the foreground. The writing of letters is always tricky, so I can say I definitely tried numerous attempts until I got something I was pleased with. In the end, I was really happy with the end result and proud to have this image in this series I had created.”

To check out more of Rob’s work at the link below:
Website
Instagram
Facebook

For Rob’s winning image showing Thanks Rob will receive a prize package filled with light painting tools and treasures from our sponsors COAST Flashlights, Neon Flexible, Rosco and Light Painting Brushes ! Please support these awesome companies that support our light painting art from, without them this contest series would not be possible! If you would like to enter the next Light Painting Photography contest click here for all the details.