Rodney Campbell's Blog

The Other Side

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 158 sec at f/9, ISO 100

On the other side of our light painting session the other night. On the way back to the car we pass through this second tunnel (no aboriginal art or graffiti in this one). I thought it might be good for a steel wool spin

Here’s Gerry on his first spin (bulked up with LOTS of steel wool :). It actually looked like it really blew out the frame on the back of our cameras. So the two spins which followed used less than half the wool and f/13 to limit the exposure

But in Lightroom this first one looked pretty good with just a halo of blown highlights right above him

I liked this best and didn’t even bother to blend with some of the frames where we just light painted the tunnel walls

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

Heliosphere

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 523 + 292 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Heliosphere – the magnetosphere, astrosphere and outermost atmospheric layer of the Sun. In plasma physics terms, it is the cavity formed by the Sun in the surrounding interstellar medium. The “bubble” of the heliosphere is continuously “inflated” by plasma originating from the Sun

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

Split Reality

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 598 + 292 sec at f/8, ISO 100

My first split orb attempt… and the last test frame (there were only 7 :)) I took on this reconnoitre session

Worked out pretty well I reckon. I added the column of “fairy sparkles” in the middle using my new small pocketable Anduril 2 based Emisar D4V2 torch. I first put the torch into “Party Strobe” mode at the lowest frequency. Then I switch the torch to “Momentary” mode so I can simply press the button when I want “flash of light”

In this you can “see” right through the tunnel and out the other side. Which is mostly hidden by the more solid orb in my other images. There’s a little ambient light pollution on the other side, which I toned down in post. But it’s quite manageable even with the 10 minute primary exposure

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

Asymptotic Anomaly

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 417 sec at f/8, ISO 100

Compositional test at this new light painting location. Here I’ve included a little of the exterior surfaces of the tunnel opening. Partially because the paintings look cool but mostly to see how the external ambient light spills on the scene. The lighting of the interior walls of the tunnel here is partly spill from creating the orb and mostly from me lighting the walls with torch

I’ve been searching (online mainly) for suitable locations for long long exposure light painting in and around Sydney. Scouring Google Maps for abandoned urban locations, tunnels, underground areas, pedestrian underpasses, drains, aqueducts and so on

This location I found through more traditional (going for a walk :)) means

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

Time Tunnel

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 14-30mm f/4 S @ 14 mm, 444 + 292 sec at f/8, ISO 100

This one is a test shot for an upcoming light painting session with Gerry

I found this spot when walking our dog recently. I’ve been looking out for locations for light painting in our local urban environment

This is a really nicely artworked pedestrian tunnel under a multi lane road

With 5 to 10 minute exposures for our typical light painting we need locations which are dark. When I shared the spot with Gerry we had concerns. There’s a row of light fittings inside along a corner of the tunnel. There are street lights on the road above both ends of the tunnel

I decided to recce the location last night to see if it was going to be viable

I took just my camera with the 14-30mm lens, a small tripod, as well as my LED umbrella, a single strand of EL wire and my new very small pocketable Anduril 2 based Emisar D4V2 torch

Thankfully the lights inside the tunnel were not on – excellent. Now I only had the ambient light pollution from the street lights and alas a full moon

After first doing a quick test shot of 5 seconds @ ISO 6400 and f/8 I could see definite promise of being able to support a 5 minute exposure at ISO 100

I did this shot in two parts to limit the overall exposure time and the chance of overexposing via ambient. If we had more people we’d just do the whole lot in parallel in one exposure. As I was by myself I did the majority of the frame in one go. This included the orb components (with the LED umbrella) and the fairy sparkles (with the D4V2 in party strobe momentary mode). The green EL wire mist at the bottom I did in a separate exposure

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.