About this limited edition photograph:

The light painted photograph “Fiery Maple” was created at the Decorah Fish Hatchery in Decorah, Iowa.

To create this light painted photograph I placed my Canon T3i camera on a tripod and I used a long exposure of 355 seconds. I created the two fans of sparks by spinning 0000 steel wool in a circle while on fire. I measured and marked out the locations of where to stand ahead of time so that both circles appeared equal distance from the tree. I made sure to pick a night where the ground was damp to eliminate any chance of starting a fire. Next, using a rope tied to the tree trunk as a guide, I walked in a circle around the tree while shining my spotlight and an amber colored gel filter at the ground to create rings of light. I then repeated the process at different distances from the tree to create the four rings of light. Finally, I used my spotlight and amber colored gel filter to cast light onto the tree from both the right and left sides of the frame.

This photograph came off my camera as-is, and involved zero post-processing or Photoshop.

Nocturnal Designs © 2014.