#178 - Way Harder Than it Looks

I decided to try my hand at some painting with light. After seeing it on some other photostreams I thought it was high time I gave it a go, how hard could it be? First off I had the perfect item I was going to paint, a tree for Christmas. Do you think I could find green LED lights anywhere? I finally had to get 2 white ones and then cover them with green cellophane. A little bit of a hassle but I was determined. Then came the drawing part, let's just say when it comes to drawing I couldn't draw my way out of a wet paper bag to save my life. Lucky for me my wife was wiling to give up some of her TV time to help me out. We had a plan - I would draw the tree and she would draw the star, then at the last second she would jump out of the frame and I would fire the flash.

Take 1:
My tree looked like 3 diamonds stacked on top of each other - her star was perfect.

Take 2:
Owen, you draw the star and I'll (my wife) draw the tree - my star looked like a, well I don't think words could describe what it looked like and of course her tree was perfect.

Take 3 - 35:
This whet on back and forth, me tree her star, me star her tree - you can imagine how something that was supposed to be fun wore out very quickly.

Take 36:
The end result - Whoo Hoo!! Don't you just love the expression on my face - can you say CREEPER?

All in all, I'm glad I tried it but I don't think I'll attempt it again for quite a while. I do still want to make one of the light balls by spinning a light on the end of a string but that will have to wait until I can do it outside.

If you read all this, thanks for sharing with me a very frustrating night, the only bright side of it was that my lovely wife was there right next to me laughing and being very patient with my "just one more try" line.

Owen

D300 - 17-55mm 2.8
13sec, f9.0

Strobist:
SB600 - 5 o'clock DIY Beauty Dish 1/8
fired at the end of the exposure.