Light painting photographer James De Luna has been putting out some imaginative new work with his Series “Lost and Alone in the Land of Giants”. Building on influence from the TV show “Land of The Giants” that he watched as a kid, James has incorporated the concept of living in a land of giants into his current life and light painting work to create some really cool images! Check out these images and the short interview with some info on how James is creating these complex and awesome images!
LPP ∇ Mr. De Luna you have been putting out some really imaginative images lately, how long have been working on your series “Lost and Alone in the Land of Giants”?
JDL ∇ Thanks for the kind words, I’ve been working on the series since January 2013.
LPP ∇ Where did the inspiration for this series come from?
JDL ∇ Of course the old TV show Land of the Giants has a huge influence – I watched it when I was a child and it kind of stuck, however I guess my first inspiration to do it in LP was from Rdigi’s (“Tunnel in the Woods”) When I first got into LP, lens cap tricks really impressed me.
LPP ∇ Would you care to share how you are creating these wonderful works of art? I am feeling like there is a lot of lens swapping mid exposure happening…
JDL ∇ Yep, spot on… The first few all I needed to do was put my fisheye very close to the things I wanted big, with the focus set close, light them, cap the lens then had another tripod a few meters from me to make myself small when I un capped, changed focus & lit myself into the frame … I always used two tripods, left a dark gap in the background when lighting, and shot myself against black cloth using a 90 lumen torch. As time went on I wanted to exaggerate the effect, or needed a different field of view, so began to swap from different lenses to the 8mm I used originally.
LPP ∇ Which is your personal favorite?
JDL ∇ It’s hard to pick, but I guess my favourite may be (“Attack of the 50′ Woman”) It was a team effort from my girlfriend and I, I think perhaps the most perfectly lit. When we had t printed it raised a few questions in the shop.
LPP ∇ Which one was the most difficult to create?
JDL ∇ ooh most difficult would be “Flushed Away” and because of the difficulties it’s not perfect …
LPP ∇ It looks pretty close to perfect to me, what was involved in making Flushed Away?
JDL ∇ That one started with my 16mm, holding a toilet brush over my lavatory (the bleach bottle was taped on) then lighting it. I capped the lens then went downstairs to my back room where my girlfriend was waiting in the dark next to the other tripod. Swapped to the 8mm lens … I had a stool and black cloth in as many places around it as I could, about 2 – 3 meters from the tripod. I balanced myself on the stool so that it would appear that the camera was looking down on me, struck a pose and Cara lit me up. when she was finished we ended the exposure, it took a few goes on two nights as we got sick of it the first time round, but it was worth it carrying on in the end.
LPP ∇ One more question. Where do you want to take this series, what ideas do you have for more images, what’s your DREAM shot for this series?
JDL ∇ Hopefully I’ll never run out of ideas for this; seasonal and holiday ideas will certainly feature at those times of year, I hope to get my larger dog in one (perhaps with me riding him ) and one idea I’ve had but been unable to do due to funds is to start the exposure connected to a microscope … will do it one day.
LPP ∇ Thanks for sharing your work and a little info oh how its done, I am sure your going to inspire more than a few people to give it a go.
What to see more work from James De Luna check out his Flickr page, Instagram, and/or his Tumblr to keep up to date!
