About this limited edition photograph:

The light painted photograph “Tree of Life- II” was created in the Community Prairie/Butterfly Garden 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 165 seconds. I created the fan of sparks appearing behind the oak tree by standing behind the tree and spinning 0000 steel wool in a circle while on fire. This threw sparks 25 feet in every direction, and it allowed me to backlight the tree so that the tree’s silhouette would pop out. Next, I stood behind the tree and spun a lit fountain firework in a circle. Finally, I stood behind the tree and lit up a roman candle firework, shooting the colored flares at various angles. All of the sparks landed in snow, so there was no risk of starting a fire.

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

Nocturnal Designs © 2014.