Light painting photographer Aaron Bauer, a.k.a. DrTongs, had just got back from a successful and inspiring light painting workshop at the University of Richmond with long time friend Jeremy Jackson, a.k.a. Tacky Shack, when his (and our) worst photographic nightmare came true.

Click here to head over to the fund http://www.gofundme.com/86nnp8

Here’s what happened:

Aaron’s friend picked him up from the airport, he put all his gear in the trunk of the car and they stopped to grab a quick bite to eat. They were in the restaurant for 20 minutes, when they got back to the car Aaron’s heart sunk as he realized the car had been broken into.  ALL his gear had been stolen! And when I say all his gear I mean everything he had. Aaron’s brand new Canon 5DMkIII with a Canon 24-105 L lens, Canon 50mm 1.4 lens, GoPro H3, Apple Macbook Pro, IPad, SD cards, batteries, shutter releases, flashlights, and the camera bag. I am sure that you have the same sick feeling that I had when I first heard this story, the good news is that Jeremy Jackson has started a Fund drive to help Aaron get a jump start on getting some new gear. We are a light painting family, Aaron and Jeremy were just starting out on a new Light Painting Endeavor to produce educational workshops and share light painting with an ever growing audience. I ask that if you can please spread some love and give 5, 10, 50, or 500 bucks to the fund. In the words of Tacky “Light painting photography is more than a hobby to Aaron, it’s his life.”  Together we can help Aaron get his life back on track.

Click here to head over to the fund http://www.gofundme.com/86nnp8

A few months ago I shared some NASA light paintings created on the International Space Station, now we have another little gift recently released from NASA but this time the light painting was created by mistake. The above image is a single frame light painting from the Hubble Space Telescope. “Hubble had locked onto a bad guide star, potentially a double star or binary. This caused an error in the tracking system, resulting in this remarkable picture of brightly coloured stellar streaks.” Via ESA.

These Fractal Filters look rad for light painting. If your interested in helping make these a reality, and getting all 3 for a good deal check out the Kickstarter page HERE.

There has been another spark ignited on the SOOC debate recently, if you don’t know what the SOOC debate is good for you, you may want to stop reading now before you get dragged in…. The SOOC debate is all about should a light painting be “Straight Out Of Camera”, or is some editing of the image OK and if so what does “some” mean… when is it not a light painting anymore? My personal opinion is any photograph is always best to get it right when you shoot it, that is what I personally strive for in my light paintings, but really you can do whatever the hell you want! I just don’t think you should say you created an image entirely in the camera if you added a bunch of layers to it in photoshop or some other digital editing program. I know some LP’s label their shots No Photoshop but tweak them to death in Lightroom, so does that deserve a no PS label?

On the other end of the spectrum, Light Painting Photographer Eric Paré Teamed up with digital artist Mike Campau to create a f@#*ing awesome new light painting project (image above) that is SOOC, (straight out of computer), see what I did there… There is no way an image like the edited version of this one could have ever been achieved SOOC, unless maybe your TCB and even with his skill set it would still be pretty difficult. Because this image is out of the computer does that make the light painting part of it any less awesome?

The debate about if a light painting should or should not be edited will rage for at least a little while longer, but as light painting grows and new projects like this one come out opinions will change, or not. Check out the before and after, the BTS video below that shows how much work went into creating the final image, and feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section so we can all look back and laugh 5 years from now…

Light Painting Photographer Dana Maltby a.k.a. TCB got some nice exposure on CBS Minnesota this week, check it out below.

P.S. I would just like to say, in my humble opinion, there is nothing “easy” about creating the incredibly complex and masterful works of art that Dana consistently produces or accessing some of his locations in the depths of the city, just saying…

Light Painting Photographer Eric Paré, creator of the incredible light painting project LightSpin 360º, is giving away 10 of his Solar Wind light painting tools! To win all you have to do is head over to Eric’s website HERE sign up and share the image on your FB page. 10 winners will be selected on March 7th and Eric will release a tutorial on Ten by Fotolia on March 10th to show you how to create this beautiful light painting effect! ok GO!