About this limited edition photograph:

The light painted photograph “Troll’s Defense” was created in Twin Springs 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 444 seconds. I used a powerful spotlight and an aqua colored gel filter to cast light onto the snow, being careful not to cast any light onto the bridge itself. I then used my spotlight and an amber colored gel filter to cast warm colored light onto the trees behind the bridge to give the appearance of a warm glow. Finally, I crouched down behind the bridge and spun 0000 steel wool on fire horizontally over my head to throw sparks over the bridge. If you look closely you can see the silhouette of my body as it eclipses the sparks that landed in front of me. I was pleasantly surprised at how the sparks landed in the snow and glowed for a while before burning out.

I named the photograph Troll’s Defense because the bridge reminded me of trolls (I am a Norwegian from Decorah, after all), and the sparks looked like a means of defense. 

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

Nocturnal Designs © 2014.