The theme for the light painting photography contest for the months of November/December is to create a light painting image using only ONE SINGLE UNMODIFIED FLASHLIGHT. For this contest we are getting back to the basics. You can create anything that you would like portrait, graffiti, landscape, etc…. but it must be created with just ONE SINGLE UNMODIFIED FLASHLIGHT. This light painting contest was put forth by the great Patrick Rochon with the idea that the single light will “push the artist to be creative all using the same tool”.

Submit your images to contest(at)lightpaintingphotography.com by the 21th of December a.k.a THE END OF THE WORLD… to win your LPP prize pack and a featured post on the website! Please remember to follow the THEME of the contest and resize your images to 600 pixels on the longest side and 72 dpi. If you do not follow the theme of the contest your image will not be accepted, and as always no F#@&*! photoshop.

Here are a few examples from Janne Parviainen, Lightmark, and Quentin Bischoff.

St. Augustine, the nation’s oldest city, has a long history and reputation for being haunted. The St. Augustine lighthouse is a world-famous haunt, where a former caretaker is said to roam its spiraled stairs, along with two children who may have died there. Check out this awesomely spooky light painting animation created by Brady Bigalke.

Halloween is coming up send in your most horrific and fear inducing light painting images to admin(at)lightpaintingphotography.com by Oct 29th and we will share them on the website.

St. Augustine Lighthouse Animation from Noble Light Productions on Vimeo.

Here are the entries for the September/October light painting photography contest. Everyone PLEASE VOTE in the comments section of this 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 “OCTOBER LIGHT PAINTING CONTEST 7″ THEN YOU SHOULD PUT THE NUMBER 7 AS ONE OF YOUR CHOICES). When casting your vote PLEASE remember the theme of this contest was to create a Light Graffiti or Light Calligraphy light painting image.

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 9,9,9…..Please pick your three favorite IMAGES based on the image alone.

This light painting contest is sponsored by the greatest flashlight company in the whole universe COAST! The Winner of the light painting contest wins a prize light painting photography prize pack with super awesome Coast Flashlights!!!

If your in NYC this Sunday OCT 21 you might want to check out the LightBomber Photo Walk with Instagram NYC. The walk will take place in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Meet at the entrance to the park by Grand Army Plaza at 4:30pm on Sunday, October 21. Walk through the park towards the southwest corner, eventually meeting again at 6:15pm at the exit by 15th Street. Then meet the creators of the Lightbomber app and they’ll have fun activities and props to create art in the dark.

This is gonna be so cool with a little help from you. Check out this light painting photography project in the works by light painter Linda Costa. They need some help to get cash flowing to put this thing together so if you can give a few bucks or a few hundred bucks please help support awesome light painting project. All you have to do is CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW TO GET INVOLVED. If your BROKE and have no bucks to give you can still help out…. SHARE this post on your facebook page, your twitter, and all your other pages that make us feel like we have way more friends than we actually do…..Don’t just blow it off and not share it, treat this like it was your own project because it is light painting and that is one of the things that makes this art form so damn special is the community we have. Help get the word out…. please and thank you.

Lillian Blades, Linda Costa, Roni Nicole Henderson ::

Sculptural interactive video experience

Banho De Luz- A Light Bath Ritual

Location: Carnegie Education Pavilion/Hardy Ivy Park ( John Portman Boulevard and Peachtree Street)

Banho de Luz — A Light Bath Ritual is an Elevate Atlanta 2012 project created by Lillian Blades, Roni Nicole Henderson and Linda Costa. Located at the Carnegie Education Pavilion at Hardy Ivy Park this site specific performance will transform the Pavilion into an enchanted space brimming with mystery and light. This event features illuminated light tapestries by mixed media assemblage artist Lillian Blades which will envelop the Pavilion, creating a glowing cocoon in which the artists hope to inspire and invigorate chosen participants using the power of light. A performance will unfold inside, lead by Lillian and light painting photographer Linda Costa, whose long exposure technique will capture portraits of participants which will then be projected onto a screen directly outside the pavilion. Video stream captures the process and will be transmitted online and shared via projections courtesy of ‘Moving Pictures’ Filmmaker Roni Nicole Henderson’s captive eye. Musical Artist Yamin Semali provides sounds, using spiritually influenced rhythm selections based on Brazilian Candomble, Bahamian Junkanoo and other Diasporic traditions selected for the inspiration each of these traditions have provided the artists in this project.

About Linda:

My photographs are light painted portraits- long exposures created in complete darkness using controlled lighting. All the special effects achieved in my images are done in the moment of taking the photograph, using experimental lighting techniques, not computer graphics. Each image takes between 2-5 minutes to create, while some may take as long as 15-30 minutes in order to achieve particular effects. These longer exposures allow me to create multiple people out of a single person, to add a feeling of time passing or movement in a single shot, and to create amazing special effects before your very eyes, in the moment of creation. I am passionate about my creative process, and have been commissioned for personal and commercial needs such as Album Art, Book Covers, and Fine Art Prints. I’m also known for performing my light painting at live events, where I can create images and share them with the public instantly. In these performances my work is fueled by the energy the audience shares. My unique process captures the essence of the subject I’m working with, creating images that are magical, colorful and bold. I’m a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and credit my tropical roots for my love of people, color and movement. I reside in Atlanta, GA with my husband and my daughter, where I participate in various exhibitions and events throughout the year.

The Light Painting World Exhibition: A Personal Account by Eric Mellinger

About two years ago, I connected with a Russian light painter, Sergey Churkin, who goes by “Chukos” in the Flickr universe. We commented on each other’s work and became Flickr buddies and Facebook friends, as is normal in the social media outlets. Last year, Sergey planned a trip to New York City where I live, and we met along with David Schlaich and a few other willing light junkies for two nights of light painting madness around Central Park and Roosevelt Island. During this meet up, Sergey told me he had an idea for a light painting exhibition of some of the best light painters in the world, and that the exhibition should be on plasma screens instead of having works printed on paper. He told me he was thinking about starting a guild of sorts called the “Light Painting World Alliance” (LPWA) and asked me if I was interested in joining and if I could pitch the idea here in New York. I thought these were great ideas and gave an emphatic yes to everything!

I did not have much luck in my pitches as most New York exhibition spaces are very snobbish in their acceptance of new ideas, but Sergey persevered. In just one year, he managed to attract some of the biggest talents in light painting to join the alliance and post an amazing portfolio of images on the LPWA website www.lpwalliance.com. Most impressively, Sergey received sponsorship for a major exhibit in Russia. Getting sponsorship is challenging enough, but Sergey managed to get an exhibit in the Central House of Artists, the largest and most visited art exhibition space in Russia! With technical sponsor, Philips, Sergey’s vision of an exhibit on plasma screens was realized this past weekend, with 58 artists displaying 100 individual light painting photographs. There is no doubt that this was the biggest group show and most comprehensive collection of master light paintings displayed under one roof in history. I was fortunate enough to have two of my works displayed, as well as travel to this historic event.

The Central House of Artists looks like a massive U.S.A. convention hall! The enormous space contains a permanent gallery of 20th century master Russian painters, including three enormous Kandinsky originals that I had only seen in books. The building is surrounded by sculptures of all sizes and styles and is located across the street from Gorky Park in the center of Moscow. LPWA’s exhibition was part of Moscow’s “Circle of Light” festival, which included laser light shows in Gorky Park, the Central House of Artists and in Red Square, along with a who’s who of innovative professional lighting organizations from around the world.

After an unusually warm and sunny afternoon on Friday, clouds rolled in and a downpour ensued just as the light show began last Friday night. I spent most of the event protecting my gear from wayward umbrellas and the driving rain while also trying to snap a few shots. I managed to get in a fairly decent shot of the finale. The enormous fabric globe was illuminated by computerized projections. For all the “orbers” out there, this was the orb of all orbs! At about 15 meters high, the ball was the centerpiece of the Red Square light show, with the surrounding buildings and laser and pyrotechnic show being used to draw more attention to the globe.

While I was off getting drenched at the light show (and afterwards being initiated into how Russians drink vodka), the light painting exhibition opened at the Central House of Artists. The crowds were large! The exhibition space attracted approximately 5,000 to 7,000 visitors each day, and there was never a time when LPWA’s exhibit wasn’t packed with visitors taking snapshots on their iPhones and admiring the works. In fact, there is no question that LPWA’s show was the most popular attraction of all!

While the admirers were asking Sergey questions about how light painting was done, LPWA had a photo booth set up where the St. Petersburg artist known as Light Graffiti took portraits of visitors who wanted to experience light painting first-hand. People waited over two hours just to have their portraits taken!

The exhibition included works from light painting legends, Eric Staller, Jozef Sedlak, Vicki DaSilva, Kamil Varga and John Hesketh. Legends using film! This website’s very own Jason Page had two works shown, as well as well-known light painters, many of them recognized on this site! The complete list of artists is as follows:

Agentina:
Santiago Di Lorenzo
Armenia:
David Galstyan
Canada: 
Charles Landriault, 
Patrick Rochon
Czech Republic: 
Kamil Varga
Finland:
Hannu Huhtamo, 
Janne Parviainen
France:
Julien Breton, 
Diliz, 
Jadikan, 
MASS Lighter, 
Rezine,
 Swit LightGraff
Germany: 
Nicolas Chibac, 
Alexandr Gnezdilov, 
Lightmark, 
Kunstiergeneinschaft Licht & Form
, Miedza Lightart Photograph, Lichtfaktor, Chris Noelie, 
JanLeonardo Wollert
Japan:
Trevor Williams
Netherlands: 
Hugo Baptista
Russia:
Hory Ma
, Alex Krivstov
, Vladimir Mihailutsa, 
Zahar Nazarenko
, Elena Nosova, 
Marina Nikitina (a.k.a. Onil) 
Victor Ribas
Solvakia:
Jozef Sedlak
Spain:
Alfredo Alvarez
Switzerland:
Anton Julmy, 
Versi
United Kingdom:
Christophe Allirot, 
Diana Goss
, Alan Jaras, 
Neale Smithies, 
Jon Steele, 
Dan Whitaker, 
Rosetta Whitehead
United States:
Dennis Calvert, 
Aurora Crowley, 
Vicki DaSilva
, Steven Erra, 
Brian Matthew Hart
, John Hesketh, 
David Hall
, Jeremy Jackson, 
Jahdakine
, Eric Mellinger, 
Mike Newcomer
, Jason D. Page, 
Darren Pearson
, David Schlaich
, Eric Staller
Uzbekistan:
Natalia Demasova

During the exhibition I was able to meet the Russian light painting couple, Hory Ma, who were absolutely delightful in person as much as their portraits were a delight to see visually. Also, Dan Whitaker (aka quornflake) from the United Kingdom was there. Dan and I got the opportunity to do an evening of collaborative light painting on Saturday night with Sergey Churkin, who was doing the driving and getting lost on our way to the University of Moscow and the new skyscraper district under lots of construction.

Unfortunately, all things come to an end. The exhibition concluded on Sunday evening with dozens of disappointed people still waiting in line to have their light painting portraits taken. Despite running out of time for the fans, LPWA’s exhibition was an absolute success. Sergey and the LPWA Advisory Board will be looking for new venues in which light painting and LPWA member artists’ works can be promoted, as well as collaborative projects and sources of revenue. Given the success of this first event, there is no doubt in my mind that LPWA and its artists will have much to contribute to the art form in the future and big things will happen!

I would be remiss if I didn’t make some shameless plugs. First, if there are interested experienced light painters that wish to join LPWA, please head to the website and register. Registration is free right now! Also, if anyone has more specific questions about LPWA or is interested in pitching the concept of an international exhibition at a major venue in your area, please get in touch with me at ericmellinger4@gmail.com.

Keep the torches burning bright!

Check out this cool little “Test” live action light painting video from Anssi Määttä from Helsinki, Finland. Everybody wants to know how to do this. I am not exactly sure what Anssi used to create this video but currently the best software that I know of to make this type of live light painting video is Light Paint Live, click here to check it out.

Live action light painting // TECH:TEST from Anssi Määttä on Vimeo.