About this limited edition photograph:

The light painted photograph “Forging the Stars” was created at the Schulz Brick Kiln, in Phelps Park 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 1736 seconds. This is my longest camera exposures to date, and one of the most challenging light paintings that I have ever created. It is also one of my all time personal favorite light paintings that I have created. 

The first challenge was the light pollution. Directly behind the brick kiln is a street light attached to a city building. I had to figure out a way to eclipse this light so that I would not over expose my photograph with tungsten colored light. I ended up taping a plastic trash can lid to the end of a 30ft long fiberglass painter’s pole. I positioned that trash can lid in front of the street light, and I successfully eclipsed the light.

To create the ball of fire I used a metal microphone stand set in the center of the sidewalk. I tied a string to the top of the stand, and on the other end of the string I tied my red LED glow stick. Now, no matter where I move the glow stick, it will always be within a circle. I spent the bulk of this 30 minute exposure filling in that circle of light with fast and random movements using the red glow stick. It was an exercise that was exhausting and wore my arms and wrists out, and was challenging due to the fact that it was very easy to leave a gap in the light trails, especially since this circle was filled in millimeter by millimeter over the course of about 25 minutes. This tested my spacial memory to its limits. Any gaps in the light I simply call “sun spots” 😉

After I had the orb filled in with light I moved the microphone stand out of the way and detached my red LED glow stick. I then went to each of the metal portal doors on the brick kiln and used fast and random movements to fill them in with tracers of light. I used a few vertical whipping motions to signify that the fire was blowing out of the portal doors with force. 

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

In 2013, Forging the Stars was a nominee in the International Light Painting Award 2013.

In 2014, Forging the Stars was the winner of the December 2014 Light Painting Photography Contest. 

Nocturnal Designs © 2012.