Light painting photographer, Digital Light Wand Inventor, and all around genius Michael Ross a.k.a TxPilot has given yet another gift to the light painting community. Building off some upgrades made by Flickr handle is0-Mick, Mr. Ross has reinvented what is possible with this amazing light painting tool! Here’s whats new…

The new Digital Light Wand’s have up to 60 LED’s per meter as opposed to 32 on the old models and they have been upgraded with all the following menu items that can be manipulated in the field:

1 – File Selection
2 – Brightness setting
3 – Initial Delay time
4 – Frame Delay (how long each pixel frame is displayed)
5 – Dual Delay (adjustment for interlace offset, depends on the speed the wand is normally used)
6 – Left to Right or Right to Left
7 – Number of times to repeat the same file
8 – Repeat delay (delay between repeats)
9 – Push On/Off Mode (Push button to start, repeats until button is pushed again.) (Great for pattern repeats)

Check these sample images and keep reading below for even more details!

LPP ∇ Hey Mike I see you upgraded your Digital Light Wand, can you tell us whats new….

MR ∇ The Digital Light Wand has gone through some changes since the first one I created three and half years ago. There have been a few varying designs based on the original and each of them made the use of the tool in the field more convenient. The most recent changes incorporate some new LED strips that have been made available recently that feature a higher density of LEDs per meter and full color manipulation compared to the original Addressable LED strips. These new strips now have 52 and even 60 LEDs per meter compared to the 32 LEDs per meter of the original. The color range is also much easier to deal with from a programming standpoint and there are a full 2.1 million colors easily available in these new strips.

LPP ∇ Sounds awesome what inspired the upgrade?

MR ∇ A guy that goes by the name of iso-mick on flickr changed the original design a while back and incorporated an SD card along with an LCD display so that several BMP files could be stored and played back on demand while in the field without having to reprogram the strip between each use! So taking iso-mick’s work, I have made some changes to the programming code to allow two of the higher density LED strips to be placed side by side with an offset to gain a greater resolution in the final image. Without getting into the technical challenges that this represents in making this work for a variety of light painters, I made some further changes to the programming code to allow for making fine tuned adjustments in the field. There are several variables that can occur such as how fast the wand is moved during the creation of a light painting photo. There are also other variables involved such as the preference of moving the wand from right to left instead of from left to right and of course just dealing with different levels of ambient lighting. Once a light painter is comfortable with specific settings on the new version of the Digital Light Wand, they can choose those defaults and only make minor adjustments between uses.

LPP ∇ Whats up with the software does it work with for us Mac users too?

MR ∇ There are versions of the Arduino software for Windows, MAC, and Linux so as long as you can format an SD card to the proper format and create 24-Bit BMP files of the images you want use, then you should be good to go!

I have the Arduino code ready to download on my website along with detailed wiring diagram, parts lists, and basic assembly instructions. And if you run into any issues, just post a question on the blog. There are plenty of others willing to help out with it!

LPP ∇ Awesome work Mr. Ross, Thank you for sharing!

Light Painting Photographer Janne Parviainen Gets Published in National Geographic! Check out this little interview we did to find out how it happened! Gooooooo Janne!

LPP ∇ So you must be freaking out, I know I am for you! Your Light painting work published in National Geographic, tell me how this happened? Did you submit the image or did they find you somehow?

JP ∇ Yeah, I’m pretty stunned to have my photo featured in the NG, I could say it’s one of my dreams come true! The weirdest part is that I didn’t even submit the photo, the editor of the magazine just contacted me and asked if they could use the photo! I must’ve read the email ten times before I understood it was true! My light painting photos were featured in www.thisiscolossal.com, Petapixel, and Gizmodo at the time and the editor had seen them in there.

LPP ∇ Thats insane! Did the editor ask for a specific image to represent an article they were writing or is your light painting published for it being a light painting?

JP ∇ The editor asked for a specific photo for the Visions of Earth section in the magazine. The Visions of Earth represents three photographs around the world each month. The photo they asked for first isn’t actually the photo that is published in the magazine. I received the first email in August 2012 and when I hadn’t received any news from the magazine in three months or so I sent them one of my newer light paintings which they liked and after that wanted to see yet another of my photos which is the one printed in the magazine.

LPP ∇ What did you do when you were first contacted?

JP ∇ When they contacted me I was euphoric! I had had a really bad day and was on a really sour mood, but when I got home I checked my emails from my phone and couldn’t believe my eyes! The day instantly became better after that!

LPP ∇ I would say so! What did you do when you got the printed issue?

JP ∇ When I got the printed issue I even showed the photo to the cashier at the store, I was so excited!

LPP ∇ Ha, you couldn’t wait for them to send your copies, So how did you celebrate?

JP ∇ I celebrated the event by buiyng a nice bottle of British wheat beer! 🙂

LPP ∇ This is so awesome, congratulations again Janne its well deserved for all your innovation and dedication to light painting!

JP ∇ Thank you.

Light Painting artist Rezine 69 has put out a book called Freehand’z. He has been working with light for more than 10 years, I recently caught up with Rez to talk about his new book that shows off some innovative and imaginative images like these…

LPP ∇ For those that may not know your work whats your name and/or alias?

R69 ∇ I m REZINE 69, (crew graffiti AOC, EP , LOTUS , KS)

LPP ∇ Do you work alone or with a crew?

R69 ∇ I work alone but I make collaborations with other artist and photographers, it depends on the project. I worked with G.Plisson for the my first book LIGHTGRAFF exit in 2007 with the Parisian editor GRAFF IT productions and collaboration with Marko 93, Kalaam , Hassan Massoudy , DETER on 2 years.

I worked with Daniel Schweizer on an advertising project for Heineken I have worked with Vichy, with Olivier Passerat, and Break Dancers. I also did a Collaboration With Pokemon crew (world Champion)

LPP ∇ How long have you been light painting?

R69 ∇ I have been lightpainting since 1999 and say more lightgraff, like an occupation of decor. I made light paintings when I worked in studio and created all the images.

LPP ∇ How did you discover light painting?

R69 ∇ It was the photographer Axel Card who showed me the technique. We worked together for 3 years on the light graph in the factory and in the city of Lyon. The first photo of my second book Freehandz light painting.

LPP ∇ Tell me about your new book Freehand’z, what is it all about?

R69 ∇ It s like a retrospective selection of images,“Freehand’z” presents more 10 years of experimentations of light photography, combining multiple disciplines such as calligraphy, graffiti and some innovative projection technics pushing the limits of this booming photographic art form, producing compositions of a rare choregraphic complexity and a breathtaking aesthetic.

LPP ∇ Are there any tutorials or light painting tips in the book?

R69 ∇ Not really, I try to discovered the new ways to use this technique. I used a videoprojector for the last part Mixmedias. I think its more interesting to discovered the materials that are a important part of the technique too.

LPP ∇ Your work has a very unique style to it, what drew you to this style of light painting?

R69 ∇ My work is a combination of calligraphy, 3D graffiti, technological, and architectural elements which aims to convey the concept of “mutation”, calling upon the viewer to immerse himself in a parallel consciousness and relationship to the world. I have been particularly inspired by surrealism in the sense that one thing can compose another and futurist concepts. My work deals with the notion of transformation of men and nature by the continuous scientific and technologic progress in a consumerist society lead by mass media and advertising. These elements combine to allow for a progressive reading of the image, dependent upon the viewer’s position in relation with the photography. A letter can comprise characters within buildings within which characters are also illustrated, who can themselves compose a faces.

LPP ∇ So now that your book is out there, What are you working on?

R69 ∇ Now Im working on a project with Swit lightgraff for museum, events, and exhibitions.

LPP ∇ Cant wait to see it, thanks for the time. Your images are insane!

Click here to check out some more images and the new light painting book FreeHand’z.