If you spend 5 minutes talking to Light Painting Photographer Denis Smith you will know his love of Light Painting is immense and his enthusiasm for sharing the Art Form is just as big! Denis is known for his “Ball Of Light” that he has created all over Australia and the world. Denis began Light Painting in 2009 and it literally changed his life, more of that here. For the past few years Denis has been sharing his passion with his Light Painting workshops and now he has created the ultimate light orb spinning device called “The Ball Of Light Tool” that will spread the light even more! Check out the video below and read on for all the details.

Interview with Light Painter Denis Smith:

LPP ∇ Hey Denis congratulations on the launch of your Ball of Light Tool! This thing looks like a beast!

DS ∇ Thanks mate. It has been a real labour with many, many versions, prototypes and variations before I was happy to share it with the world.

LPP ∇ Can you tell me about it! It looks like a bit of a modular system with different heads and cables, all attached to some sort of control box?

DS ∇ My very first orb tool was simply a tennis ball on the end of a piece of string with some LED’s sticking out of the ball. It was great, and really reliable, but it meant that for each color I wanted, I had to have a full set up of string, battery and “head”. Of course this became a tangled mess every night. Way back in 2010 I devised a system of connecting different heads to the battery pack via a cable. This meant that I could have a bag of different colours, the cables were replaceable, as these were the most unreliable, and a replaceable, battery pack. It completely changed the way I painted with light.

LPP ∇ So you can switch out different colored heads, thats cool how many colors are available?

DS ∇ This is the really fun part. The Ball of Light Tool ships with 2 colours that I choose, and will be clearly shown on the shop, then I will be making up all sorts of colors that will be available to purchase. We have been sending a lot of packs out with up to 5-6 heads. At this stage we have about 10, but this will grow quickly. Not only will there be different colors, but we will have a variety of heads specifically designed for extreme conditions. These will include “ultra bright” heads for use in really bright urban areas. There will also be runs of “limited edition” heads when I find some crazy LED’s or material to use.

LPP ∇ What does the main control box do exactly?

DS ∇ The controller serves several purposes. It holds the 9v battery. Over the years I have experimented with all sorts of power supplies and batteries. But this is perfect, just the right current, ultra-compact and lasts for ages. The controller also allows you to control the “brightness” of the head. This is really the huge one. Traditionally you had to make your camera settings based on the brightness of the tool so that is wasn’t over or under exposed. This meant that your background was immediately secondary. Anyone who follows my work knows it is all about the background. Whether that is in a bright street scene, or under the full moon. Being able to adjust the brightness of the tool means that you are able to easily make creative choices based on the bigger picture. Of course there is a button to activate the head. I have used the absolutely best quality components I could find for the controller. I want these to work for years.

LPP ∇ That on/off button and brightness control are gonna be great! It also looks like it has a wrap or wrist strap, what is this about?

DS ∇ Traditionally you hold the cable in your hand and spin it while turning. This causes 2 things to happen. You can damage your finger pretty quickly. There are all sorts of ways to overcome this. You can wear gloves, or tape up your finger. I have also seen some pretty ingenious ways to grip the cable. But it is difficult to get away from the fact that the cables break pretty quickly where you grip them. Over the years I have devised a grip and method of attaching it to the cable that, if you watch the tutorial video, it will last for a long time and removes the possibility of blisters. In fact, it makes the process incredibly comfortable. We even shot some ultra-slow motion video for the tutorial showing exactly how I hold the grip and position the cable, that was fun.

LPP ∇ I saw one of your videos where you are smacking the heads with hammer, you put these things through some pretty rough testing can you tell me a little about that?

DS ∇ Oh yes. I have designed the head so that you can smack it against the ground, break off an LED or even hit yourself on the head with it, and the thing will keep on working. We were mucking around in the studio one day and I made the comment that you could beat the shit out of it with a hammer and it would still work. So we picked one head and gave it a shot. We ended up using the same head for about 6 videos, throwing it around outside and snapping off LEDS while it was still on. It was so much fun and in the video you can see the whole head deforming and it still bounced back.

LPP ∇ Why did you decide to build this tool?

DS ∇ Light Painting has exploded in popularity in the past few years. Back in the day, as you would remember, we had to learn how to solder, drill and work out what resistors had to go with what current and so on. It was so much fun. There have been some incredibly good videos out there showing how to make a simple orb tool, achievable by most. But I have been increasingly asked from all over the world, and by a lot of very experienced light painters, to make a tool to sell. The reality is there are a huge amount of people who simply cannot make these tools. There are also a lot of people who don’t have the time. My goal is to share the joy of light painting with as many people as possible. And If by creating a simple to use, reliable and fun tool that allows more people to get out and at least try, then this seems a great way.

LPP ∇ How long have you been working on this?

DS ∇ I decided about a year ago that this was going to happen. I thought it would be really easy. Just replicate what I used and get it out there. It turned out to be a much, much bigger project. I realized pretty quickly that the overall build quality needed to be much higher than my tool. I also realized that it had to be cost effective for people. The time spent designing the product, sourcing the right components, then building testing, modifying, testing, changing, pricing etc simply took and astonishing amount of time. Not mention money.

LPP ∇ I know the quality of this product was really important to you, but with quality comes a higher cost, how did you balance the quality and cost out when you were developing the tool?

DS ∇ Great question, this was probably the hardest part of the whole process. I had a target price that I knew would be achievable to the average Light Painting enthusiast. But I was not going to compromise on the quality of the design or components. I spent so much time ordering, waiting for and putting the parts together then head out testing. This was a recurring pattern for months until I knew I could package up and send out a kit feeling proud, and genuinely excited for the person at the other end. There have been people questioning the price but once people think hard about the time I have spent (astronomical), the money I have invested (substantial) and the passion there is in each kit (there is love in those boxes!) it pretty quickly evens out. I am completely stoked with where the price ended up. It is a great balance. Obviously there will be those who disagree, but you cannot please everyone. I was out with someone last night who bought a pretty basic torch for the same price recently. I was so nervous the day we opened up sales. 24 hours later I was completely satisfied that we had hit the sweet spot. We got hammered!

LPP ∇  Here is the best question… where can we get one?

DS ∇ We have opened up a shop so people can head over and check out the tool there, CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE SHOP! Soon we will be adding a bunch of other products including the Light Painting Brushes system which I am also excited about.

LPP ∇ Thank you for taking the time to answers some questions, it looks like you have really thought of everything to create the ultimate orb spinner! I hope The Ball Of Light Tool is a great success and helps with the continued growth of the Light Painting Art Form!

DS ∇ Thank you.

Incredible Light Painting work by Ivan Boluda and Riders of Light is nothing new but this right here is even more extraordinary!  So the theme of this months Light Painting Photography contest is “Light Man” or “Light Woman” and when Ivan saw the theme he sent me this completely mind boggling image to share with everyone for inspiration.

Called “The Big Party” this image explores what might happen in abandon buildings while no one is watching. Ivan said “Taking advantage of the congress Inight 2016 in Madrid, with many national artists that flocked to the capital, we decided to gather a group of artists and friends for a fun night Photo creating this work in a location that we had previously visited.”

The big party, has a total of 129 Light Men “having fun and dancing” and was created by non-stop work of a team of Spanish Light Painters in the city of Madrid.

This incredible Light Painting Panoramic photograph is composed of 3 shots horizontally and then united with Ptgui software.

The exposure time for each image was approximate 25 minutes shot at ISO 400 –  F 5.6

CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW AND IT WILL TAKE YOU TO THE ATTACHMENT PAGE WHERE YOU CAN DOWNLOAD THE HIGH-RES VERSION TO SEE IT IN FULL SIZE WOW!!!

Directed by Riders of Light

Created by Light Painters:

Javier, Jiménez, Ivan Lucio, Iván barco, Frodo Álvarez, Jorge Echeverría, Natalie Valdivieso, Esther Noemi, Alexandra Lunar,Robe Alonso, Roberto García Sanz, Xavier Vázquez, Carles Calero, Sergi Boix, Victor Frances, Augusto LLacer, Maite Castelló, Carles Domenech.

This is second of a 2 part series of articles about Light Painting at Photokina! In Part 1 of the Photokina Light Painting series I interviewed the main organizer of “Photokina Event- World LightArt ” and “The Photokina – LightArt Congress (PhoLAC)” Jan Leonardo Wöllert. Here in Part 2 I wanted to get another perspective of the event from two of the Light Painting artist that were invited, Pala Teth and Mart Barras! I asked them to each select a single image from the event and tell me why this was their favorite image. Getting two extremely talented photographers to select just one image from an event all about Light Painting Photography was not easy but thankfully these two were able to narrow it down and share their personal stories about the event.

Pala Teth:
The PhoLAC congress was fantastic, with a lot of highlights, like the amazing improvised collaboration with an authentic and original Ball of Light from Denis Smith (Australia) combined with the famous light skeletons from Darren Pearson (USA) in the middle of a park in Köln (Germany). This example is for me a fantastic symbol of the relationships that the Light Painting creates between people, over the borders and the continents. And there were so many crazy moments like this one during the congress! But the most impressive image for me is when I saw the Light Painting pictures selected by the PhoLAC team all over the huge official screens in all the entrances and halls of the Photokina (190 000+ visitors). The picture I selected was taken by Sven Gerard of a Light Painting by Mafu Fuma, from Aurora Movement. This image by Mafu is one from his portfolio that won the special prize at the International Light Painting Award 2016 and was projected onto one of the giant screens at Photokina!

As a European photographer, Photokina is for me the Mecca of the Professional Image and Photography Business (yes, with capitals, you know what I mean…). The Light Painting was there, everywhere, on big screens. The first time I’ve seen one of these screen, I had to stop and watch. I was like a child, amazed by the show. It has made me really proud of our art form! The Light Painting produces spectacular, impressive, colourful, attractive and eye-catching images. It was clearly visible that these images are able to compete with the splendid images used by the brands for their marketing needs. For me, the fact to show these LP images in the Photokina has added a huge load of credibility to our art form.

Mart Barras:
The photo I’ve chosen for you is one that myself, Phill Fisher and Kim von Coels (The Krumble Empire) created at the PhoLAC After Fun party hosted by Karin Brodowsky on the Friday evening. I love it because after such a great day, we all had the chance to hang out, share amazing food and drink, talk and most of all Light Paint together. A perfect end to a perfect day, old friends and new celebrating together our art-form, something I’ll remember forever 

To be fair all the photos I took are special for me, for different reasons so it was hard to pick. I have a great one of Denis Smith running around the hall, just before he went on for his speech. Dennis really summed the whole trip up for me, with his energy and obvious passion for light painting, something which we all feel about our art form and was present throughout all the speeches and visible in the work and time and effort that Jan and his team had put into the event.

Check out part 1 HERE.

 

Photokina is the world’s leading trade fair for photography and video imaging. With 983 exhibitors from 42 countries, including every major photography brand, and 191,000 visitors its safe to say its as big as it gets in the world of Photography. The multi day event was held in Cologne, Germany and here is the best part, thanks to the hard work and dedication of Light Painting Legend and LAPP founder Jan Leonardo Wöllert, this year Photokina showcased the Light Painting art form in a big way! There was an exhibition of over 100 Light Painting Artist from 40 different countries, Light Painting Lectures, Light Painting Workshops, and even a Live Light Painting Photo Booth in the Olympus Playground right in the front of the show! Jan Leonardo is a very busy man but I was finally able to talk with him a little bit about the event! Since this was such a grand event I also wanted to get another perspective from a few of the Light Painters that attended the event so I asked Pala Teth and Mart Barras to select one single image from the event and tell me why it was their favorite, that will be PART 2. First up is the Interview with Jan Leonardo Wöllert read on below.

Interview with Jan Leonardo Wöllert:
LPP ∇ Jan first off on behalf of the entire Light Painting community I want to say Thank You! What an extraordinary event for light painting art and artist you created this year at Photokina. Can you tell me more about some of the different light painting events you organized for for the show?
JL ∇ Thank you Jason, 
Together I worked with the organizers of Photokina and many other light painters and friends to created the event “Photokina Event- World LightArt” this included a few different areas:

The Photokina – LightArt Congress (PhoLAC) was held on September 23rd and 24th. 
The Congress was a great event that included live music, laser shows, Ironman & Avengers live, workshops, light painting lectures and presentations, and much more in the Center of Photokina!

We had the Digital Light Painting Exhibition powered by ZEISS On 22 Panasonic screens. One these screens we presented over 100 Light Paintings by artists from 40 different countries! The 100 nominated photographs from the International Light Painting Awards 2016, as well as the winners of the International Light Painting Awards 2015 and 2013. The exhibition area covered 150 square meters and was in the lighting area of Photokina. There was also a chill lounge for drawing a deep breath and enjoying the Photokina experience. The Winners of International the Light Painting Award 2016 were shown along with the winners of the 3rd International Light Painting Award on back lighted pictures. These beautiful illuminated images were produced from the print specialist Daniel Ries!

3rd: As special attraction we had the Light Painting photoBOX direct on the middle boulevard. The Live Light Painting photoBOX was on the middle boulevard in the entrance area of Photokina as a main attraction. It was a part of the Photokina Eventworld too. During the whole photokina produced lots LP artist more than 1000 live light paintings with interested photokina visitors.

4th: Finally we had a Printed Exhibition of the Light Painting Award – Photokina Special prize winner 2015 Darren Pearson from USA. Whitewall/Hahnemühle print exhibition

LPP ∇ WOW that is a lot going on! How many artist participated in the digital exhibition?
There were around 126 artist that were shown in the Light Painting Gallery powered by ZEISS together with the winners of the International Light Painting Award 2016.

LPP ∇ Can you tell me more about the live light painting photo booth, who was creating the portraits for this portion of the event?
JL ∇ Bernhard Rauscher organized the Light Painting photoBOX and hosted them together with Sven Gerard, Gus Mercerat Manuel Köstler. We also had a rich program and international guests, including Darren Pearson (USA), Eric Pare (Canada), Denis Smith (Australia), Mart Barras (UK) and many more. On the photokina opening day Ironman was there in person for photographs.

LPP ∇ How did you select the artist you brought to the event?
JL ∇ The idea was to bring light artist from around the world together! Eric Pare is one of the fastest growing international Light Painting artist. He and Kim are a amazing artist couple. Denis Smith is the best Australian Light Painter and was the 2nd Light Painting Award winner in 2013, he is also a very successful and professionel light painting artist. Mart Barras is a very creative light painter and well known too. The basis of my sellection was that the selected artists were role models and/or had a very special message, like the great German Artist Sven Nieder and his Stella Polaris story.

LPP ∇ What was your favorite moment from the Photokina?
JL ∇ The “After phoLAC FUN” there was for the whole community a great moment. Organized by Karin Brodowsky and Marcel Panne from Lichtfaktor was a night a full success with a unbelievable Brazilian Barbecue named Rodizio and a lot of beer. This event was planned to be a big Light Painting together but it was much much more. I saw so many faces and people that we spoke to for the first time after a long time friendship online.

The light and fire artist Rene Albrecht did a fantastic fire show. This “After photLAC FUN” was for a great moment for all of us.

LPP ∇ How many people visited the light painting exhibitions?
JL ∇ In all areas we had more than 16.000 visitors. Alone the Light Painting Gallery powered by ZEISS had more than 11.000 visitors at the six photokina exhibtion days. The Light Painting Gallery powered by ZEISS was the biggest international light painting exhibition world wide and a great success.

LPP ∇ What was the most challenging part of the event?
JL ∇ This is funniest part Jason! The most challenging part was my own speech on the Photokina – LightArt Congress. I spoked often about Light Painting at different events but I was never so unendless, dead, and empty. After a few minutes into my speech I lost my concept and was close to crying. The audience was great, they gave me big ovation and helped me in these painful moments. The Photokina “Event World LightArt” and the PhoLAC were planned so big, there was almost too much to be done! I noticed it during the Photokina, It was overwhelming and I slept only 3 hours each night.

Another very emotional moment was during the construction of the Light Painting Gallery together with Jörg and Garry from EMD also Anna and me. Garry hurt himself very bad. His middle finger was broken in eight places and between him and I we couldn’t prevent it. He had to go to the hospital and after only 3 hours he was back and continue working with us. Thank you very much dear Garry … you old hard bone.

LPP ∇ Who were the sponsors that helped put all this together.
JL ∇ At first is to be mentioned the Photokina. The Photokina and I were the promoter of the “Photokina Event World LightArt” and from the phoLAC. Without the support, power and believe in the success of the event there would have been no phoLAC. Thank you so much Mrs. Pudlat and Mr. Schmale.

Carl Zeiss and Manfrotto supported and sponsored all areas and helped with organization questions and with money. Thank Daniel Ries from the HQ Print Service delivered the best backlight prints I ever have seen. The fotoforum Magazine produzed together with me the fantastic fotoforum special print with all data’s of the different stages, events and areas. They printed 4000 magazines and they were after 5 days out of print.

Thank you very much dear Martin Breutmann for your help and ideas.
But the biggest sponsors and helpers were the humans: My friends! 
First to mention the good soul and my girlfriend: Anna Leonardo!!! She helped me in moments I was more than down. She talked with people when I hadn’t time for conversation. Anna is my artistic muse and my life. Thank you so much Anna Leonardo to be with me in this difficult times.

Garry Krätz from EMD was the Technical Manager and gave all his power, his event equipment and experience for the PhoLAC and the Light Painting Gallery powered by ZEISS. Thank you very much for your unendless power dear Garry.

Joerg Wurzbacher was the organisator of the Light Painting Gallery and one of the brains behind the phoLAC. Thanks you so much for your help, ideas and for your man-power dear Joerg.

Bernhard Rauscher organized the Light Painting photoBOX and hosted them together with Sven Gerard, Gus Mercerat Manuel Köstler. Not to forget the many Light Painting Artist they showed her talents in the BOX. Thank you so much for your great job guys.

Last but not least the amazing making of and event photographer Chritaian Arne DeGroot for the this wonderful documentations of all these events.

There are so many helpers, sorry I can’t tell every story. So I say thank you so much to: Karin Brodowsky, Marcel Panne, Anton Julmy, Jörg Schmidt, Barney Flashlight, Mafu, Ironman & the Avengers Live, Sven Gerard and all the others great humans they I have forget.

LPP ∇ Again it was a truly amazing event that really benefited the community and the Light Painting Art Form so thank you very much to you and everyone that contributed to making this event happen!

JL ∇ Thank you Jason.

 

IMAGES Used From Photokina Group Album HERE