Here are the entries for the February light painting photography contest. Everyone PLEASE VOTE in the comment section of the page to pick your top 3 images, the images all have a number in the title (EXAMPLE… IF ONE OF YOUR FAVORITES IS THE IMAGE TITLED “FEBRUARY CONTEST 21” THEN YOU SHOULD PUT THE NUMBER 21 AS ONE OF YOUR CHOICES). This months contest theme was to create a light painting Portrait, meaning that the image must contain a person…. Voting ends on the 1st.
Oh and P.S. Voters that do not include 3 unique choices in their post will not be counted. In other words no 1,1,1, or 5,5,5, or 22,22,22…..Please pick your three favorite IMAGES based on the image alone.

This contest was sponsored by the greatest flashlight company around COAST!

This is as real time as light painting can get.

Series of 8 mechanised systems, carbon, steel banding, LED’s

Thixotropes # 1, # 2, # 5 and # 6: 1.20 m (DIA) x 2.20 m (H)
Thixotropes # 3, # 4, # 7 and # 8: 1.75 m (DIA) x 1.75 m (H)

‘Thixotropes’ is comprised of a series of eight illuminated mechanised structures, each of them shaped as a composition of intersecting angular and geometric forms that are made of thin tensed steel banding lined with rows of LED’s.

The constructions continuously revolve around their own axis thereby materialising the path of the light and dissolving the spinning structures into compositions of aerial cones, spheres and ribbons of warm and cold light while giving life and shape to an immaterial construct.

‘Thixotropes’ was commissioned by Selfridges London.
October 2011 – January 2012, and was nominated for the Designs of the Year award by the Design Museum London in February 2012.

troika.uk.com/thixotropes

The light painting dynamic duo of Ryan Warnberg and Michelle McSwain better know as MRI have created the radical LIGHT BOMBER! Its the first light painting app. created by light painters for light painters. This little jammy is pretty sick. You can tell it was built by someone who actually light paints with a bunch of practical features. It will take your iphone or ipad and turn it into a good time, if you get my drift…. Want to try it out? MRI was cool enough to give the first 10 people that emailed the LPP site with “Gimme that free F@#*ing code for that Light Bomber thing” in the subject line of the email but SORRY KIDS YOUR TOO LATE THE CODES ARE ALL GONE…..If you were too slow to get the free code click HERE to get it for yourself from the apple store, its only a buck…

Here are a few samples of what Light Bomber can do…

If you like it be sure to leave some good words in the comments section of the application store so other light painters will know how wonderful it is…

 

I would like to official welcome light painting photographer Michael Ross, a.k.a. TxPilot to the light painting photography bright talent family of artist. Check out some of his full light painting photography profile HERE.

 

Fabrice Wittner has done it again. What is it, well it is… he created some effing amazing and moving light painting works of art. Back in 2011 Fabrice created his first light stencil work in New Zealand as a tribute to the souls lost in the Christchurch earthquake. This time he took his life size stencils to Hanoi. Fabrice says this of the project…

“Following the first opus of Enlightened Souls in Christchurch, I went to cut my stencils out in Hanoi, Vietnam. I didn’t expected to work on a second series of characters during my journey in Hanoi, but my schedule went lighter than I thought and I needed to find an occupation.”

“September was dedicated to a simple trip across Vietnam, as a standard tourist. In Sapa – one of the hot spot for tourism in North Vietnam – I realized vietnamese city-dweller tourists were a bit sniffy and picky with the local people from the mountains. Tourism doesn’t always wear the happy face of a brochure but as tourist myself, I couldn’t criticize too hard…
Anyway, this is how the enlightened idea occurred for the second time. Back in the capital I had two more month to prepare my material. Like a little joke, I thought it could be funny to let some country-side kids wandering in the streets of Hanoi, like country mice visiting their town mouse cousins.”

Check out these AWESOME images…

Light Painting Photographer Michael Ross, Inventor of the “Digital Light Wand”, has been hard at work promoting and progressing light painting. He has started a photo school that will teach courses specific to light painting photography, he has written a light painting photography book, and he will have some of his own work published this month in Photo Technique Magazine. I got the chance to catch up with mike recently to how the F*#! all this happened…..

LPP ∇ Hey Mike so you have a lot going on in your photography world, your school, light painting book, and getting published tell me whats happening…

MR ∇ That is for sure! There is a lot going on in my world right now. I have been in the process of starting up a Photography School that will offer courses which will focus on specific areas, such as a course to teach moms how to take better photos of their kiddos and of course a Light Painting course.

In the midst of all of this, I have been able to complete a Light Painting “How To” book that is focused on teaching beginners not only the basics of how to use their DSLR cameras, but how to use them with light painting to give them a good solid kick start in the art form.

LPP ∇ That is a full plate are you still working a “normal” job as well or is this your full time gig now?

MR ∇ I have left the I.T. career that I have been working in for over 30 years behind. I am pursuing my dream now.

LPP ∇ Thats is awesome I bet it feels great! you say you are in the process of starting the photography school, have you already taught some classes or are you still putting it all together?

MR ∇ I have been teaching small classes and informal sessions on the side for quite some time. I am still in the process at the moment to find a good location for Little Photo School and have also been working on creating the formal course materials and presentations. It is a TON of work but I am having a blast doing it!

LPP ∇ Is the building of the Little Photo School the inspiration for your new light painting book? Will it be used as sort of a text book?

MR ∇ The book has been something I have been working on for a while. And with all of the work on the school materials in teaching the basics of how the camera works, along with the experiences that I have had in teaching others camera basics and Light Painting, I decided it was a really good time to complete it all. It helped me put together a good foundation for teaching photography basics as well for some of the other classes I will be offering in the School.

This specific book, “LIGHT PAINTING PHOTOGRAPHY – A Complete How To Guide for Beginners” was written for someone that wants to get into Light Painting and may have even purchased their first DSLR to get into it. It could basically be looked at as a guide for jumping into “Manual Mode” by using Light Painting Photography as the subject.

LPP ∇ Thats great! I know there are a few other light painting books out there, but I think this will be the first “HOW TO” book. Do you have a lot of people that come to you wanting to learn specifically light painting? Our art form is growing everyday, do you see the growth in your teaching with more people wanting to learn?

MR ∇ There has definitely been a lot of interest in Light Painting and it seems to be growing more every day! I have had the pleasure of leading a few Light Painting Photowalks that were offered by one of the largest camera shops in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and that is where the idea for the book first hit me. For each of the walks, a lot of time was spent at the start teaching folks how to get their cameras set up for Light Painting. It just seemed like there was a need for the book, so I worked on putting it together to fill the need.

LPP ∇ Did any other light painters contribute to the book?

MR ∇ None of them did directly. But I do mention a lot of them throughout the book and have a few pages of “Other resources” listed where I provide links to their work.

LPP ∇ Thats nice of you to give a shout to your fellow light painters… I saw that you are also getting some images published tell me about that.

MR ∇ That has been in the works for a while now and actually started with a college student in Oslo, Norway contacting me about doing an article on me for a project in his school work. I agreed and to make a long story short, he did great with the article with his school work and then ended up submitting the article to Photo Technique Magazine. They had received another article from photographer Stan Patz in New York, who does different types of studio Light Painting, and they decided to dedicate an issue to show the extreme differences in Light Painting.

LPP ∇ Wow that is sooo cool you help out a random student in Norway and you end up in Photo Technique Magzine! When will it be out?

MR ∇ It is the Jan/Feb issue of Photo Technique and should be on its way to subscribers and newsstands as we speak.

LPP ∇ Are these the first light painting images you have had published?

MR ∇ Not the first, I had a few images published in a Photo magazine in France as well. This one has a much larger circulation though I think which is really exciting!

LPP ∇ How many copies are you gonna buy?

MR ∇ LOL I think at least 10 of them!

LPP ∇ I would clear the rack….. Well congratulations on all your much deserved success, where can people find your book, “LIGHT PAINTING PHOTOGRAPHY – A Complete How To Guide for Beginners” and where can they find out more information about taking some classes at the Little Photo School?

MR ∇ The book is available both on my personal website at http://www.mrossphoto.com/wordpress32/ebooks/ and the Little Photo School website as well which is located at http://www.littlephotoschool.com/

LPP ∇ Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions now get back to work….

And the winner is…… Aaron Ploog a.k.a. “Awake at Night Photography” for two of his images actually but Nocturne picked this image of the bugs as the final winner. All of Aaron’s images were in the top selections by the readers. For his efforts he will receive our biggest prize pack yet including a $50.00 gift card from Adorama, flashlights from Coast, and gear from Nocturne including his new Noctography gel system.  Check out more work from Aaron HERE. and check out the January light painting contest theme HERE.