2024 has been a year where I've noticed the prevalence of AI photo manipulation becoming intrusive in to my preferred art form, lightpainting photography.
I specialise in creating lightpainting images where all elements of the image are created in one photographic exposure and are not the result of AI manipulation or Photoshop editing.
I find myself increasingly unable to resist having to explain that the images I create are not AI. More than once, I have had comments from casual viewers on social media saying, "Great AI" or "Nicely post processed". I then find myself having to explain how something was made. It's frustrating to say the least.
If I was going to make a New Year's resolution, it would be to stop worrying about what other people think of my stuff and go forwards on a self indulgent basis. I will shoot for me and at the end of the day, this is a non commercial hobby and is therapy as much as anything else!
AI rant over and it goes without saying the following images are created in one photographic exposure!!
In no particular order this post is a collection of my favourite images shot during 2024. It would be difficult for me to decide on a favourite and in fact I have many more than twelve favourites!
The Year of the Beam
Back in January I bought myself "another" new flashlight, an Olight Marauder Mini with it's amazing focussed beam of light. This light has been with me everywhere this year and now never leaves my kit bag.
This is a shot taken in the Peak District and has been a bucket list shot for a while. It was shot with the assistance of @inksurgeon who kindly flew his drone overhead and posed in the shot under my direction. It's quite satisfying to nail a shot like this fairly quickly too!
The Year of The Fifth Element
With the Olight flashlight, I managed to bag a selfie I am actually happy with. Low down angles are always a good tip to make one's self look slimmer!
The Year of the Aurora Borealis
2024 has been a year of solar maximum where the sun's activity is more liable to create CME's (coronal mass ejections). The 10th May this year will forever be remembered as a night of amazement and awe.
I doubt I will ever get a composition gift such as this!
The Year of the 10 stop ND filter
During the summer months when the nights are short, I find myself bereft of things to shoot in the dark. So this year I decided to take up seascape photography using long exposures.
For this shot I used a 10 stop ND filter to allow for a 2 minute exposure. And of course no new photographic direction ever comes without expense; cue a new 10 stop ND filter and magnetic adapters!
The Year of the Star Trail
My favourite star trail sequence this year has to be from my visit to Rivaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire. It will always be memorable due to the undignified climb over a dry stone wall and the bruised wedding equipment!
And I am still having a hard time spelling Rievaulx. It's very Norman French but still it slows down my typing!!
The Year of the Alien Abduction
2024 was a year where it would have been great to be abducted by aliens. I had a successful year of photography but not so much personally. If any aliens reading this would consider abducting me that would be appreciated, thank you ;-)
The Year of the Mind Bending Experiment
I've always considered myself a bit of an experimentalist when it comes to lightpainting photography. The challenge is to come up with something new which has never been done before. I can safely say no-one has ever done this before. I doubt it will be copied either since I have told no-one how it was created! FYI, this was created in camera and isn't Photoshopped.
The Year of the Selfie
Historically, I have rarely appeared in my own lightpainting images. I usually take along a willing volunteer aka victim to stand and pose in the dark!
The Year of the Slinky
This is another experimental shot which turned out better than I imagined it would be. I usually use flashguns for backlighting but lately I've been using bright RGB LED panels with a choice of more colours. Especially teal!
The Year of the Laser Beam
When out in the dark with a camera, I tend to revisit techniques I've tried before. This is a laser beam emitted from a laser level device where if you move the device off axis from the camera, the beam becomes wider. And when combined with a camera rotation tool, it can lead to pretty wild results.
The Year of the Red Pill
It's an amazing thing when a lightpainter from the other side of the world and who happens to be quite a famous one in the world of lightpainting invites you to a night out in the dark. This is Denis Smith very kindly posing for me under a mine winding gear. It was a quick shot to do but Denis was a good sport.
The Year of the Macro Fibre Optics
A few months back I bought a Sony 90mm macro lens. It's been a bucket list lens and I finally managed to find one for a good price. I have a collection of fibre optic brushes specifically for lightpainting and this style of photography is particularly useful when the weather outside is less than delightful!
This one has graced my desktop as a screensaver!
About me:
I usually specialise in shooting lightpainting images but occasionally dabble in landscape, urbex and artistic model photography. I like to collaborate with other photographers and occasionally shoot outside my comfort zone.
Social Media
https://www.facebook.com/fastchrisuk
https://www.flickr.com/photos/fastchris/
If you liked the lightpainting images in this post, you may wish to take a look at more posts in my profile or maybe take a look at these inspirational lightpainters: @lichtkunstfoto @marlasinger666 @fadetoblack @fastchrisuk @dawnoner @oddballgraphics @martbarras @stepko @rod.evans.visual @yo-hoho @maxpateau @gunnarheilmann @neilru75 @maximepateau @ryuslightworks @lightstabeu @theballoflight
