Light Painting Contest Winner, Dec 2014

And the winner is… Jordan Kjome for this fiery masterpiece titled “Forging the Stars”. This image was one hell of a long exposure at a whopping 1,836 seconds!

Thank you to this months judge’s Denis Smith and Jelle Schuurman.
Denis said “There were some stunning light painting images entered into the Orb competition this month. Light painting has progressed so far since I first Created the Ball of Light. It fills me with joy. The three finalists were beautiful. To me a great photograph is one that creates an emotional reaction inside me. Striving for technical perfection is secondary. Focusing on the art, rather than the pixels, allows us to become free to go hard and create magic. And in all of the images entered I see that, and feel it.

In the three final images we have three very different styles of image. All are beautiful but for me number 14 stands out. I keep going back to have another look. Firstly because it fills me with a feeling of wonder and awe, then I need to figure out how? Congratulations, this is a truly stunning light painting image!”

Here is some more about the image from Jordan:
“Forging the Stars” is one of my favorite light paintings, and certainly one of my most exhausting and longest exposed photographs. It is a 1,836 second (over 30 minutes), single exposure photograph with no post processing. The structure is a brick kiln in Decorah, Iowa called “Schulze Brick Kiln”. There were unique challenges to this shot that required some problem solving before I could begin light painting. About fifty feet to the rear right of the shot is a tungsten street light mounted to a building. This meant that I could only do very short exposures before the photograph would over expose. I did not have access to turning this light off, so my only option was to eclipse the light. I used a thirty foot long, extendable fiberglass pole with a plastic trashcan lid taped to the end to eclipse the light. Three heavy weights, along with steel cables, allowed me to triangulate the pole so that it would not sway in the wind and come into contact with the power lines. Needless to say it worked, but I won’t risk the dangers again next time.

The faux fire effect was light painted using a single LED and red translucent plastic. The “star” at the center of the photograph was light painted with my tool tied to a string, and that string was tied to the top of a homemade stand, similar to a microphone stand. The string enabled me to create a perfect sphere, and about twenty minutes of the exposure was spent filling in the sphere with light. The trick for a realistic fire effect lies in the wrist. Be as random in movement as possible, and move at an absolute snail’s pace. This is where your spatial memory comes into play. It is very easy to miss a spot when you are filling in a sphere that has twenty square feet of surface area, and you are moving one millimeter at a time for twenty minutes. Fortunately, the spots that I missed worked to my advantage as sunspots.

The four portal doors were light painted using the same light tool, only disconnected from the string and stand. Again, I moved at a snail’s pace while I covered every millimeter of the face of the doors, and then I added quick wisps of light to make it appear as though the fire is blowing out those doors.

Thirty minutes of moving your arm/wrist as quick and random as you possibly can will result in muscle fatigue- especially when you do take, after take, after take. Physically turning the car’s ignition key to head home was a funny challenge in itself.”

We are glad Jordan didn’t cause any blackouts and was able to get home safe and sound to upload
his winning image! To see more from Mr. Kjome check out his website www.NocturnalDesignArt.com and his Facebook page Nocturnal Designs!

For the winning image Jordan will receive a LPP prize pack filled with treasures from our sponsors below. 

Click here to see the current contest theme and find out how to enter to win your LPP prize pack!