Recently University of Richmond senior, photography club president, and avid light painter Laura DelPrato decided to introduce her fellow photographers to the world of light painting by holding a workshop with two radical light painting artists Jeremy Jackson, a.k.a Tacky Shack and Aaron Bauer, a.k.a. Dr. Tongs! The workshop turned out to be a great success with over 50 participants, hundreds of new light paintings being created, and no doubt a few new light addicts being born. I caught up with Laura to see what was behind this workshop and as you will read her motivation, light painting aspirations, and personal achievements are pretty damn inspiring.

LPP ∇ So Ms. Laura Congratulations on a super successful light painting workshop tell me a little about yourself. What do you do at the University of Richmond, are you a student, teacher, or something else?

LD ∇ Thank you Jason! The workshop was so much fun! I am currently a senior at the University of Richmond (UR). I will graduate in May with a double major in Leadership Studies and French, and a minor in Physics. I am also President of the UR Photography Club and a kickboxing instructor and fitness assistant at our university wellness center.

LPP ∇ How long have you been light painting and how did you get started?

LD ∇ I have been light painting since I learned about it as a night photography technique in my photography class during my Sophomore year of high school. That makes it about 6 years. I learned on film and fell in love with the light painting process. In the best image from my first roll of light painting film, I dressed up as Cinderella and had my mom and brother create a light spiral around me with a flashlight. I was fascinated by the magical possibilities so I continued to light paint after that whenever I could!

LPP ∇ What was your inspiration to bring a light painting workshop to the University of Richmond?

LD ∇ I wanted to bring a light painting workshop and presentation to the University of Richmond to share the magic of light painting with everyone in the UR and Richmond community. Ever since the formation of the Light Painting World Alliance (LPWA), I have been trying to figure out ways I can contribute to the promotion of the art form and I decided that my best approach was to use the resources I have as a college student. I decided to write a thesis that introduces light painting to the academic world and the workshop was a practical component to supplement my written material. I had initially wanted to host an exhibition in one of the campus museums but they were already booked a few years out.

LPP ∇ Who was involved?

LD ∇ Initially, it was just me working on organizing the workshop with direction from my thesis adviser, Dr. Kristin Bezio and support from Maja White, my former stage lighting professor. Maja was the one who encouraged me to try to organize an exhibition and Dr. Bezio helped me transform my light painting passion into a thesis project. Later, I gained support from Jeremy Jackson, Aaron Bauer, and UR Photo Club. We were honored to receive funding for the event from the UR Cultural Affairs Committee. I would also like to give a shoutout to our DJ Nick Yeutter, “Yites”, who is also a student at UR.

LPP ∇ How did you select Jeremy and Aaron as the artist for the workshop?

LD ∇ I went to the Light Painting World Alliance website and looked for light painters in Virginia. I saw Jeremy and recognized him from Flickr, so I sent him an email asking if he would be interested in bringing light painting to the UR campus. Jeremy was very enthusiastic and said he was willing to help in any way he could! Aaron was actually a surprise! Jeremy mentioned that he had an associate, but I didn’t realize his associate was an established light painter! I found out as we were getting close to the event so I didn’t have the ability to change the flyers. However it was a pleasant surprise for everyone at the presentation and workshop.

LPP ∇ How many people were at the workshop?

LD ∇ There were about 40 to 50 people at the workshop and there were around 60 people at the presentation.

LPP ∇ How long was the workshop?

LD ∇ The workshop was two hours long.

LPP ∇ What was the most difficult part of organizing the workshop?

LD ∇ This was my first time organizing an event, so most of the process was challenging! It was particularly difficult to find a dark spot on campus. Luckily, the university electricians were very helpful and agreed to turn off lights for the workshop part. As for the presentation, we had to deal with some ambient light from exit signs but it turned out okay!

LPP ∇ What was the best part?

LD ∇ The best part of organizing the light painting workshop and presentation was the ability to meet so many new people and share the magic of light painting with them. I loved seeing the expression on their faces when they realized their ability to create really neat images. It feels great to be part of such an engaging and interactive event!

LPP ∇ What was the general reaction of the Participants? Did they get it right away or was there a learning curve?

LD ∇ From what I observed, the participants had a great time! Most of them understood light painting concepts right away, and were eager to try out the light tools! If they did not understand something during the presentation, they weren’t afraid to ask questions, which is great. I think they learned a lot more that way! It seems that a lot of them are interested in learning about how to create light painting tools so that is something to keep in mind for the future.

LPP ∇ Anything wild happen that you would like to share?

LD ∇ Well, as my UR Photo Club members would say, we are officially in a light painting with two “ghosts” 😀

LPP ∇ Do you plan to do anymore?

LD ∇ I would love to do more! I think it is a great team building experience that allows you to develop new skills while having fun. Hopefully UR Photo Club will host another workshop next year and will invite all three (Jeremy, Aaron, and me) of us back! My dream is that eventually light painting will be taught at the college level so I see this as the first step to introducing it to the academic world.

Inspired by the success of this event Jeremy and Aaron have decided to have more Interactive Light Painting Events you can follow them on Facebook HERE, Flickr HERE, and Twitter HERE.

ON A SIDE NOTE AARON GOT RIPPED OFF AND LOST ALL HIS GEAR AN HOUR AFTER HIS FLIGHT LANDED BACK HOME AND COULD USE SOME HELP CLICK HERE TO FIND OUT MORE.

Here is a cool video of the event produced by Stephen Blue:

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!