I have been very busy at night while most of you would be in your beds asleep. I have decided to mix it up a little bit and try some light painting photography. I’ve found a few unique locations which I have been putting to good use after a month of preparation.  I’m really enjoying experimenting at night with different light sources in new and exciting locations. It’s amazing how different the atmosphere is at night after you paint with some LED lights, the results speak for themselves.

I know some of you won’t be familiar with the terminology ‘light painting’, also known as ‘painting with light’, so here is a brief description to put it into perspective….

Light painting is a photographic technique in which exposures are made by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. The term light painting also encompasses images lit from outside the frame with hand-held light sources. These images you see in this gallery use those techniques and a few other tricks to create these magical dreamy images. Light is the primary factor in our ability to interpret and define the universe. Capturing light in long exposures breaks down our conventional understandings of time and space. Time is no longer linear. We see multiple moments all at once. We become time travelers.

For more information about the history of light painting you can read this article.

The story behind these new images for Drew Hopper Photography

I wanted to try and find something a little more radical with my photography. I have noticed a lot of people have been picking up cameras and getting out and shooting the coastlines, rainforests and landscapes on the Coffs Coast. A lot of those people have been following my work for quite sometime now, so I do feel rather horned to have inspired them to have a crack at it too. I just feel it’s my time to expand and explore some new territory for a change. I guess this is one of the reasons for this new series of images.

I wasn’t sure which path to take my photography, so I spent a solid couple of months online looking for new ideas, and that’s when I stumbled across some light painting images which really inspired me.
I decided to start making some of my own homemade lights from different household tools I had laying around the house. I wasn’t exactly sure if it’d work or not, but that was all part of the experiment that inspired me to challenge myself. The longest thing involved in light painting photography is preparation, often days, event weeks I’ll spend experimenting with new light tools at home until I perfect the desired effect I’m after. Not only are the tools important, but the weather plays a strong role which can either make or break the images.

I really hope you enjoy this new series of images just as much as my fine art landscape/nature work. I will continue to shoot nature, however I will be incorporating light painting into my landscapes over the next year to build up a solid portfolio for fine art prints. These prints will be available from my website under the ‘light painting’ gallery.

I will be putting together some tutorials on how to create some of these effects with your camera. If you’d like to keep updated with new images, tutorials and all the other photographic updates please visit my Facebook profile and become a follower of my work to keep up to date. You can also subscribe to my blog by filling in your email address to be notified when new blog entries are posted.

More images coming soon…